39 1 





JAMES OTIS 






Class _ZjiZ__ 
Rook /f/^ 



(dlivriiilii X'.' 



I ni>Mii(iHT ni:i't>siT- 



Philip of Texas 



A Story of Sheep Raising in Texas 



BY 

JAMES OTISIx^oijLA^ 




NEW YORK •:• CINCINNATI •:• CHICAGO 
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 



JAMES OTIS'S PIONEER SERIES 



ANTOINE OF OREGON: A Story of the Oregon Trail. 

BENJAMIN OF OHIO: A Story of the Settlement of 

Marietta. 
HANNAH OF KENTUCKY: A Story of the Wilderness 

Road. 
MARTHA OF CALIFORNIA: A Story of the California 

Trail. 
PHILIP OF TEXAS: A Story of Sheep Raising in Tex.\s. 
SETH OF COLORADO : A Story of the Settlement of 

Denver. 



Copyright, 1913, by 
Mks. a. L. KALEE. 

COPYKIUHT. 191o, IN GkEAT 1?R1T.\IN. 



PHILIP OF TEXAS. 

w. p. I 



©CI.A346i.j9 



FOREWORD 

The author of this series of stories for children 
has endeavored simply to show why and how the 
descendants of the early colonists fought their way 
through the wilderness in search of new homes. The 
several narratives deal with the struggles of those 
adventurous people w^ho forced their way westward, 
ever westward, whether in hope of gain or in answer 
to " the call of the wild," and who, in so doing, 
wrote their names with their blood across this 
country of ours from the Ohio to the Columbia. 

To excite in the hearts of the young people of 
this land a desire to know more regarding the build- 
ing up of this great nation, and at the same time 
to entertain in such a manner as may stimulate to 
noble deeds, is the real aim of these stories. In them 
there is nothing of romance, but only a careful, 
truthful record of the part played by children in 
the great battles with those forces, human as well 

as natural, which, for so long a time, held a vast 

3 



4 FOREWORD 

portion of this broad land against the advance of 
home seekers. 

With the knowledge of what has been done by 
our own people in our own land, surely there is 
no reason why one should resort to fiction in order 
to depict scenes of heroism, daring, and sublime 
disregard of suffering in nearly every form. 

JAMES OTIS. 



CONTENTS 



My Dre.ams of a Sheep Ranch 

Sheep Raising 

Herding Sheep 

Something about Texas 

Land Grants 

The ''Texas Fever" . 

Why I Wanted to Go into Tex 

Hunting in Texas 

Father Goes to Spy Out the L 

Our Plantation in Mississippi 

Father Comes Home . 

The Bigness of Texas 

Where We Were Going 

What I Hoped to Do 

Cattle Driving . 

How We Set Out 

A Laborious Journey 

Comanche Indians 

Father Comes to My Rescue 

The Arrival at Fort Towson 

Preparing for a Storm 

A Dry ''Norther" 

5 



vs 



VND 



PAGE 

9 

lO 
12 

14 

15 
i6 
i8 

19 
21 

23 
24 

25 
26 

28 
29 
31 
32 
•35 
36 

39 
40 

42 



CONTENTS 



Two Kinds of " Northers " 

How Turkeys Kill Rattlesnakes 

Deer and Rattlesnakes 

Making a Corral of Wagons 

On the Trail Once More . 

Mesquite .... 

A Texas Sheep Ranch 

The Profits from Sheep Raising 

Father's Land Claim . 

Spanish Measurements 

The Chaparral Cock . 

Our First Night on the Trinity 

Standing Guard . 

A Turkey Buzzard 

Plans for Building a House 

The Cook Shanty 

A Storm of Rain 

A Day of Discomfort 

Thinking of the Old Home 

Waiting for the Sun . 

Too Much Water 

The Stream Rising 

Trying to Save the Stock 

The Animals Stampeded 

Saving Our Own Lives 

A Raging Torrent 

A Time of Disaster . 



CONTENTS 



The Flood Subsiding . 

A Jack Rabbit .... 

Repairing Damages 

Rounding up the Live Stock 

The First Meal after the Flood 

Waiting for Father . 

Recoi-ering Our Goods 

Setting to Work in Good Earnest 

Sawing Out Lumber . 

Laboring in the Saw Pit . 

Wild Cattle .... 

A Disagreeable Intruder . 

Odd Hunting .... 

A Supply of Fresh Meat . 

" Jerking " Beef .... 

Searching for the Cattle Again 

Our New Home .... 

Planting, and Building Corrals 

Bar-0 Ranch .... 

An Odd Cart .... 

The Visitors .... 

Zeba's Curiosity 

Possible Treachery . 

Suspicious Behavior . 

Gyp's Fight with a Cougar 

In a Dangerous Position . 

Hunting Wild Hogs . 



86 
88 
90 
91 
93 
94 

97 

98 

100 

102 

104 

105 

107 

109 
III 

113 
114 

115 
117 
118 
120 
121 

1^3 
123 

127 
129 



8 



COVPEXTS 



Treed by Peccaries . 
Gyp's Obedience . 
My Carelessness 
Vicious Little Animals 
Father Comes to the Rescue 
The Increase in My Flock 
Unrest of the Indians 
Texas Joins the Union 
War with ^Mexico 
Selling Wool 
Peace on the Trinity 
My Dream Fulfilled . 



PAGE 

135 
137 
138 
141 

143 
144 

147 
149 

151 
152 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



MY DREAMS OF A SHEEP RANCH 

The day I was twelve years old, father gave me 
twelve ewes out of his flock of seventy-two, counting 
these sheep as payment for the work I had done in 




tending them. Even at that time I thought myself 
a good shepherd, for I was able to keep a small flock 
well together. 

9 



lO 



PHILIP 'OF TEXAS 



With Gyp, our dog, I could have herded five hun- 
dred as readily as 1 did seventy-two, because on our 
plantation in Mississippi the pastures were fenced. 
Therefore when father began to talk of moving to 







•^^'^f^^^^-^ 



Texas and there making 

a venture in the cattle 

business, I decided at 

once that if he did so, 

it should be my aim to raise sheep. With this idea I 

gathered from the neighbors roundabout, who had larger 

flocks than ours, all the possible information about the 

business in our own state. 

SHEEP RAISING 

A sheep in order to thrive should have not less than 
two acres of fairly good pasturage in which to roam. 



SHEEP RAISING ii 

Much less than that amount of land would provide 
a sheep with food in case it was inclosed ; but on the 
range, where the flock is turned out to feed over a large 
extent of country, the animals are inclined to "bunch," 
as the herders call it; that is, to keep in close company 
and wander here or there trampling down the grass 
without eating it. 

A sheep will yield about five pounds of wool each 
year, and you can count that each animal in a herd 
will give you one dollar's worth of its fleece annu- 
ally. Of course there is considerable expense, if one 
is obliged to pay for shearing, or for dipping, in case 
that disease known as "scab" comes among the flock. 
I have known a sheep raiser to pay four cents a 
head to the Mexican shepherds simply for dipping 
the flock ; that is to say, for giving each animal a 
bath in a certain mixture in order to drive out dis- 
temper which, in sheep, is like the mange that comes 
upon dogs. 

Then it is pretty certain that during the year there 
will be as many lambs born as there are sheep in the 
flock, and if a sheep is worth five dollars, you can 
reckon the lamb at three, for it will be a yearling 
in twelve months, and a full-grown sheep a year 
later. So one can say that every sheep worth fi\'e 
dollars will bring in a profit of four dollars each year, 
less the expense of keeping. 



12 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



HERDING SHEEP 



Suppose you have a flock of five hundred sheep. 
They will "herd," as sheepmen say, which means, 
keep nearly together, within a space around which a 
man can ordinarily walk two or three times a day, to 
prevent the wilder ones from straying. 

When the flock is driven out on the range from the 
pens, they are kept moving a mile or two, whfle the shep- 
herd walks around the flock, talking to them, so that 
they may hear his voice ; the animals pick up mouth- 
fuls of grass now and then, even while being driven. 

In rainy or cold weather, sheep walk much more 
rapidly than they do w^hen it is warm; therefore the 
shepherd has more work to do. In very hot, dry 
weather, they wifl often not feed in the daytime, but 
continue eating until late in the night, and then the 
herder has his work cut out, for those are long days 
from sunrise until nine or ten o'clock. 

But think of the profit of five hundred sheep in one 
year ! Suppose they cost you for herding, shearing, 
and dipping, in case you cannot manage the flock 
yourself, three hundred dollars. You get two thousand 
dollars for the wool and the increase in the flock, and 
pay out three hundred. This leaves seventeen hun- 
dred dollars clear profit in one year from five hundred 
sheep, and that is not a large flock. 



HERDING SHEEP 



13 



Of course if the scab gets among the sheep, or the 
Indians kill many, or the wolves can't be kept away, 
there will be more or less loss which must come out 
of the seventeen hundred dollars ; but take it all in 
all, unless one has very hard luck, it seems to me he 




should be able to count on at least a thousand dollars 
profit from five hundred sheep. 

Now it might seem as if this matter of raising sheep, 
and the profit to be had from them, could have no in- 
fluence in deciding my going from the state of Missis- 
sippi to the republic of Texas, and yet if it had not 



14 PHILit OF TEXAS 

been for my hope of one day owning a big sheep ranch, 
I would not have been so dehghted when father be- 
gan to talk of making a new home in that country 
which had so lately separated from Mexico. 

SOMETHING ABOUT TEXAS 

One might suppose that my father was a shiftless sort 
of man to make a change of homes after he had a boy 
twelve years old ; but that is not the fact, as you will 
understand when I tell you why we sold the plantation 
in Mississippi, where we were raising fairly good crops 
of cotton, to embark in the cattle business in Texas. 

Of course, it is not necessary for me to relate that the 
people in Texas declared themselves independent of 
Mexico in the year 1836, as in 1776 the colonists de- 
termined to be free men in a free country, and so 
broke away from England and England's king. 

No doubt you already know that it was on the twenty- 
second day of April in the year 1836, the day after the bat- 
tle of San Jacinto, that General Houston captured the 
Mexican general, Santa Anna; a treaty was then 
made between Texas and Mexico, which allowed the 
Texans to become an independent nation. You are 
also acquainted with the troubles in Texas, when, in 
the year 1840, the Comanches overran the country, 
and you have heard of the capture of the town of San 
Antonio by the Mexicans in September of the year 1842. 



LAND GRANTS 15 

LAND GRANTS 

All this has little to do with what I am going to tell 
in regard to my going into the sheep business; yet 
if all those things had not happened, then President 
Lamar and President Houston might not have been 
able to make grants of land to people who were willing 
to come into the country and build homes. 

There were a number of men who succeeded in getting 
so-called grants from the Texan government. Among 
these there was a certain Mr. Peters, — I never knew 
his first name, — who had obtained a grant of an ex- 
ceedingly large tract of land in the northern part. It 
was, so father had been told, the best land in Texas; 
and in order to gain settlers, Mr. Peters agreed to 
give outright to the head of every family six hundred 
and forty acres of land, and to each single man three 
hundred and twenty acres. 

Now, of course, my father was the head of a family, 
although mother and I were the only other members 
of it ; nevertheless he would receive just as many acres 
of land as though he had a dozen children. 

When the matter was first talked about among our 
neighbors in Mississippi, I hoped I might be counted 
as a single man ; but I was very soon made to under- 
stand that a lad of twelve years was mistaken when 
he reckoned himself of sufficient age to have given him 

PHIUP OF TEXAS — 2 



i6 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



three hundred and twenty acres of land simply for 
going into a country and living there. 



THE TEXAS FEVER 

Because of this offer by Mr. Peters, the people 
around us, whose plantations were not particularly 
valuable, were highly excited, for all had heard how 
rich was the land in the republic of Texas, and how 
well it was adapted for cattle raising. 




While mother and father were talking the matter 
over, trying to decide whether they would go into 



17 

Peters's colony, I heard him tell her that already a 
great many people from Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, 
and Kentucky, as well as from our state, had gone 
there and had sent back the most cheering words 
regarding the possibility of making money in that new 
country. 

Perhaps I should say that this grant was made to 
the Peters colony early in the year 1842, but it was not 
until the spring of the next year that father began to 
have what some of our neighbors laughingly called 
the ''Texas Fever "; and I took it because of the possi- 
bihties of raising sheep. 

It was just about this time that the Texans began 
to talk of being annexed to the United States, for their 
republic was not so flourishing as many would have 
liked to see it. The country was in debt to the amount 
of nearly seven million dollars, so I heard father say, 
and the people stood in fear of the Mexicans on the 
one side, who were ever ready to make trouble, and of 
the Indians on the other, to say nothing of the wild 
beasts everywhere. 

Such a thinly settled country could not raise large 
armies to fight off their enemies, and those people who 
had been living for some time in Texas believed that 
if their republic could become a part of the United 
States, they would have all the soldiers that were 
needed to keep peace in the land. 



i8 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



WHY I WANTED TO GO INTO TEXAS 

Of all this I knew \'ery little at the time father 
was talking about making a new home, and I cared 




less, for my mind was filled en- 
tirely with the idea of one day 
owning a large sheep ranch. 

From the time I began to take care of father's flock 
I had heard people, lately come from Texas, declare 
that that was the one spot in all the wide world 
where sheep could be raised easily and at small cost. 

There were other reasons besides this which caused 
me to hope that my father would decide to make a 
change of homes. I had heard that the ponies, which 



HUNTING IN TEXAS 



19 



the Texans called mustangs, could be bought for from 
eight to twenty dollars each, and that they cost no 
more to keep than ordinary cows, for they did not 
require grain. Now, in all my life, I had never owned 
either horse or pony, for the only driving animals on 
our Mississippi plantation had been mules. 

HUNTING IN TEXAS 

I had also read that there was much good hunting 
in Texas, and that one need not go very far afield in 
order to find plenty of bears; in fact, that there were 




.#^_ 



too many for the comfort of the sheep raisers. I knew 
also that deer were to be found in large numbers and 
that there were cougars, which are called Mexican lions, 



20 



PHILII^ OF TEXAS 



and pantlicrs, together with wildcats and wolves. 
Fancy such a hst of game as that for a fellow who was 
as fond of shooting as I was ! 

Then again, one of our neighbors who had been in 
Texas told me of the wild hogs, or peccaries, as they 
are sometimes called, that go in droves of from half a 




dozen to twenty or thirty, 
and are very fierce when 
stirred up. 
The wolves concerned me most just then, for you 
know that these animals are exceedingly fond of sheep, 
and he who herds a flock on the range must keep 
his eyes wide open for those four-footed enemies. 
Three kinds of wolves were to be found in Texas: 
the black wolf which was rare, the covote, and the 



FATHER GOES TO SPY OUT THE LAND 21 

lobo or gray wolf. The last two were great sheep 
stealers and many in number. 

It seemed to me then, as it has many times since, 
that it would be great sport to hunt those sheep eaters 
and lay up a goodly stock of their pelts, for a wolf 
hide, when taken in the proper season, makes an ex- 
cellent bed covering, whether it be in a house or on 
the open prairie. 

From the time that father began to talk of joining 
Peters's colony, I spent a good portion of my time 
learning all that was possible concerning this republic, 
the people of w^hich were eager to come into the United 
States. I found, as any one can who will make diligent 
search, the most interesting stories not only about 
hunting, but about the early troubles between Texas 
and Mexico, the Texans' fight for independence, and 
the many Indian raids. 

FATHER GOES TO SPY OUT THE LAND 

It seemed to me that father and mother spent a great 
deal of unnecessary time in discussing whether they 
would change their home from Mississippi to Texas. 
In fact I was beginning to despair of ever becoming 
a sheep raiser in the Peters colony, when father sud- 
denly declared that he would go to see the country for 
himself, and if it was half as good as people said it was, 
he would lay out his claim of six hundred and forty 



22 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



acres and come back to sell the plantation and move 
the live stock. 

I begged hard to be allowed to go with him, but my 
request was not to be granted, for although we owned 
two sla\'es, John and Zeba, neither of them could be 
trusted to look after the cattle, the sheep, and the mules. 




Therefore it was decided that I should be the head of 
the famih' while father was away, and so proud was I 
o\'er being gi\'en such a position of trust, that I failed 
to grieve, as I otherwise might have done, at not being 
allowed to go with him. 

He set out with a pair of our best mules hitched to 
a light wagon, intending to drive to Little Rock in 
Arkansas, and from there to Fort Towson, after which 



OUR PLANTATION IN MISSISSIPPI 23 

he would make his way across what is now Grayson 
County, spying out the land. 

OLTR PLANTATION IN MISSISSIPPI 

It was not a very long journey, although he would 
probably travel two or three hundred miles before 
turning back. We lived in Boli\^ar County, in Missis- 
sippi, near Indian Point, where, as you know, the Ar- 
kansas River joins with the Mississippi. 

Our plantation was not well suited to cotton raising, 
and perhaps for this reason father was all the more 
willing to listen to those people who had so much to 
say about Texas, that one could almost believe it to be 
a veritable Promised Land. Father had set out to 
raise cattle, although our plantation was no better 
adapted for such a purpose, perhaps, than it was for 
cotton raising. We had about seventy head of oxen, 
and twenty mules, together with the seventy-two sheep 
which made up my o^Yn and my father's flocks. I did 
not realize that the profits from sheep raising in Texas 
might not be the same as in Mississippi. 

I counted the days while father was away, thinking 
with each sunrise that I would see him again before 
nightfall. After he had been gone two or three weeks 
I was foolish enough to wander up the road now and 
then, hoping to meet him on his return, and be the first 
to hear the good news. 



24 PHILIP OF TEXAS 

FATHER COMES HOME 

He had been absent nearly six weeks, and my heart 
had almost grown sick with waiting, when late one 
night, after I had gone to bed, I heard a commotion 
downstairs, followed by shouts for John or Zeba, and 
then I recognized my father's voice. 

There is little need for me to say that I tumbled, 
rather than ran, down the stairs, so great was my eager- 
ness to learn the result of his visit into Texas, and even 
before he had had time to take me in his arms I in- 
sisted on knowing whether he had staked out his claim. 

In a few words he quieted my impatience by telling 
me we would set off for the new country as soon as the 
necessar}^ arrangements could be made. So far as the 
details were concerned I was willing to wait, for the 
matter had been settled as I hoped it would be. 

Later, I learned that our new home was to be on the 
West Fork of the Trinity River, where, so father said, 
the land was better suited for cattle or sheep raising 
than any other he had ever seen. 

As a matter of fact he was even more delighted with 
the prospect of going to Texas than I was, and at once 
mother fell in with the plan heartily. She knew he 
would not have been so pleased at taking up a claim, 
unless it seemed certain we could better our position 
very greatly, for he was a home-loving man, and would 



THE BIGNESS OF TEXAS 



25 




not have moved from our plantation had he not felt 
reasonably sure of making a change for the better. 

He told us that people from the United States, and 
even from across the sea in France, were going in 
great numbers to Texas, and he had no doubt but that 
as soon as it was made one of the states of the Union, 
it would prosper beyond any land of which we had 
ever heard. 

THE BIGNESS OF TEXAS 

Then he began to tell us how large the republic of 
Texas was, and before he had finished I was filled with 
astonishment, for, without having given any great 



26 . PHILIP OF TEXAS 

thought to the matter, I had fancied it might, per- 
haps, be somewhere near the size of our state of 
Mississippi. 

He told us that Texas was much larger than the 
countries of Sweden and Norway together, three times 
the size of Great Britain and Ireland, and nearly twice 
as large as France. He also said that the area of all 
the New England and Middle States was considerably 
less than that of Texas. 

Imagine such an extent of territory open to new 
settlers! A republic nearly eight times as large as the 
state of New York, nine times as large as the state 
of Ohio, and six times as large as all New England 
put together! 

There was no longer any surprise in my mind that 
the people who made up the government of Texas would 
be willing to give six hundred and forty acres to every 
man with a family who would settle there, when, 
within their boundaries, they had more than two 
hundred million acres. 

WHERE WE WERE GOING 

Talk of sheep raising, and giving two acres to each 
sheep I If, before father went away, I had been eager 
to own a sheep ranch in Texas, then certainly I was 
nearly wild with the idea after he returned, for from 
his stories I began to understand that one could own 



WHERE WE WERE GOING 27 

thousands upon thousands, and yet find ample room 
to feed them all. 

We were not going, so it seemed, into the best por- 
tion of the republic for sheep raising, but rather into 
the northern part, while the finest grazing lands were 
on the western side, or in that oddly shaped piece which 
is called the "Panhandle." 

However, I was well satisfied if we could not have 
the best of the sheep-raising business, if only we might 
embark in it anywhere. 

Again I was contented because we were going into 
the northern part, rather than to the westward, owing 
to the stories father told of an enormous colony of 
Frenchmen which was being brought over the sea by 
a gentleman whose name was Castro. Mr. Henry 
Castro was a very wealthy Frenchman, who had been 
appointed by the Texan government as Consul General 
to France. Having been given a grant of land by the 
government, he agreed to bring over a large number of 
people from his native country, paying all their ex- 
penses of traveling, and lending each man sufficient 
money to set himself up as a ranchman. Already, it 
was said, he had seven hundred people on seven 
different ships which he had hired at his own cost, 
and these colonists would soon be set down in Texas 
to make their way as best they might with his 
assistance. 



28 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



WHAT I HOPED TO DO 

I was only twelve years old, and already owned twelve 
ewes. Now I well knew from what I had heard sheep 
raisers say, that if I attended to my little flock properly, 
and if they met with no accident, it would be nothing 
marvelous if, at the end of nine years, when I should 
be twenty-one, my flock had increased to five thou- 
sand, or even more. 

Father had hardly finished telHng mother and me of 



/^A 




what he had seen during his journey, before we began 
to make preparations for moving. Surely it seemed to 



CATTLE DRIVING 29 

me we were likely to have good luck, for within eight 
and forty hours after he returned, a man came up from 
Baton Rouge to buy our plantation, having heard that 
father was suffering with the Texas fever. Within 
two hours after he showed his willingness to buy our 
land the bargain was made, a fairly large portion of the 
money paid over, and mother and I knew that within 
twenty days we should leave the home where I was 
born. 

CATTLE DRIVING 

Perhaps my heart grew just a bit faint when I learned 
that it would be necessary to drive all our cattle and 
sheep from Bolivar County into Texas, and that I was 
expected to do a large share of the work. Father 
thought that John, Zeba, and I should be able to keep 
the cattle on the road, for we were to follow the highway 
the entire distance, and he intended to hire three slaves 
from our neighbors to drive the mules which would 
haul all our household belongings. 

There was no question in my mind but that we would 
get along easily with the oxen and the cows. Father 
decided to harness most of the mules to three wagons, so 
they could be handled by the hired negroes ; but the 
question of how we would be able to get the sheep along 
worried me much. Whoever has had charge of such 
animals knows well that it is not a simple task to drive 
them over a strange country, however quiet they may 



30 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



have been on feeding grounds with which they are 
acquainted. 

But no good could come from my worrying as to 
how we might get into Texas. I would soon know by 
experience. In fact, I had little time to concern my- 
self about anything whatsoever save the work on hand, 
because in order to be ready to leave the plantation 




within twenty days, all of us found plenty with which 
to occupy our hands. 

It really seemed to me as if Gyp knew exactly what 
we were planning to do, for he walked around at my 
heels day after day, with his tail hanging between his 
legs, as though ashamed that he was about to leave 
the United States for a new country, where he would 
see a flag which bore but a single star. 



HOW WE SET OUT 31 

HOW WE SET OUT 

There was so much bustle and confusion on the plan- 
tation during the short time left to us that I hardly re- 
member how we made ready ; but I do know that we 
were finally prepared for the journey, and that John 
and Zeba set off with the cattle twenty-four hours 
before father, mother, and I left home, in order that the 
creatures might become somewhat accustomed to trav- 
eling by the time we overtook them. 

We had three wagons covered with heavy cloth, 
each drawn by six mules, and loaded with all our 
provisions, clothing, and such farming tools as we 
wanted to take with us. 

The other two mules were harnessed to the wagon 
in which father had made the journey to Texas, and 
in this mother was to travel, father riding with her 
when he was not needed elsewhere. 

My mother was a good horsewoman, and the hand- 
ling of two, or even four, mules would not have troubled 
her in the slightest. Therefore she said to me laugh- 
ingly when Gyp and I had gathered the sheep into 
one corner of the stable yard, ready to set off just be- 
hind the mule teams, that her part of the journey would 
be much like a pleasure trip, while to my share must 
come a goodly portion of dust and toil. 

Father had hired from one of the neighbors three of 

PHILIP OF TEXAS — ^ 



32 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



his best negroes, who were to drive the mule teams, and 
who could be trusted to come back alone from Texas 
as soon as their work had been finished. 

So it was that we had in our party two grown white 
people, one boy, five negroes, and Gyp. I am counting 










i\\ 






'r 



•'»Hi'..lH(Al^ 



the dog as a member of the company, for before we 
arrived at the West Fork of the Trinity River die 
showed himself to be of quite as much importance, 
and of even more service, than either the white or 
the colored men. 

A LABORIOUS JOURNEY 

John and Zeba managed to get along with the cattle 
very well ; but the drivers of the mule teams were not 



A LABORIOUS JOURNEY 33 

SO skillful in handling the animals as father had ex- 
pected, and the result was that he found it necessary 
to take the place of one or the other nearly all the time, 
thus leaving mother alone. 

Sometimes I led the procession; at other times I 
trudged on in the rear where the dust was thickest, 
running first on one side of the road and then on 
the other, to keep the sheep from straying, and suc- 
ceeded in holding them to the true course only by 
the aid of my dog, who had more sound common 
sense in that shaggy body of his than the brightest lad 
I have ever come across. Gyp was a willing worker, 
and a cheery companion at all times. He would run 
here and there regardless of the heat, and when the 
sheep were partly straightened up as they should be, 
come back panting, his red tongue lolling out, and look- 
ing up at me with a world of love in his big brown eyes, 
as if to ask why I was so solemn, or why I could not 
find, as he did, some sport in thus driving a flock of 
silly sheep to Texas. 

During the journey we halted wherever night over- 
took us, sometimes camping in the open and finding 
our beds in one of the wagons, or again herding our 
cattle in the stable yard of a tavern. 

As for food, we got it as best we could. When 
fortune favored us and we came upon a tavern, we had 
enough to satisfy our hunger, and in very many places 



34 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 




as good as we could have had at the old home in 
Bolivar County. At other times we ate from the 
store of provisions we carried, cooking the food by 
the roadside, while the sheep and the cattle, too tired 
to stray very far after so many miles of plodding, 
fed eagerly on whatever grass they were lucky enough 
to fmd. 

G>To was my bedfellow, whether I slept in one of the 
wagons or at a tavern, and before we had crossed the 
Red River I found myself treating him as T would 
have treated a lad of my own age, and time and time 
again I thought to myself that he understood all 1 said 
to him. 



COMANCHE INDIANS 



35 



COMANCHE INDIANS 

Before we left the old home I firmly believed we would 
meet with strange adventures on our long journey, 
and each morning when we set out, I driving the sheep, 
with G>p running to and fro to make certain my work 
was done properly, I felt convinced that before night 
came something out of the ordinary would take place. 




Yet until we came near to Fort Towson I saw nothing 
more strange or entertaining than I might have seen 
on the banks of the Mississippi River, but when we 



36 PHILIP OF TEXAS 

were within two miles or more of the fort, and the 
sheep and I were leading the way, we suddenly came 
upon a band of seven Comanche Indians, the first of 
the tribe I had ever seen. They were all mounted, 
no one of them wearing more clothing than the breech- 
cloth around his waist, and at least two of them armed 
with what I believed to be serviceable rifles. 

It was as if the fellows had come up out of the very 
ground, so suddenly did they appear. /Vlthough I 
could not have understood their language if any attempt 
had been made to open a conversation, it was plain 
to me that they intended to take possession of my sheep 
as well as of those belonging to father, while I did not 
doubt but that they would make quick work of me. 

FATHER COMES TO MY RESCUE 

It is more than likely that all my fears might have 
been realized had the remainder of our party been very 
far in the rear, for I believe the savages thought I was 
alone on the road, driving the flock to Fort Towson 
where it could be slaughtered ; but at the very moment 
when two of the most villainous of the party dismounted 
and came toward me with their rifles in hand, father 
and mother drove up in the two-mule team. 

Immediately the savages drew back until they had 
regained their horses, which were being held mean- 
while by the other members of the party. 



FATHER COMES TO MY RESCUE 



37 



Father was out of the wagon in a twinkhng, with 
a pistol in each hand and coming rapidly toward me, 
shouting for those in the rear to hurry on, as if he had 
a large company at his back. 




The Indians did not wait to learn how strong we were 
in numbers, and more than likely they saw the cloud 
of dust in the distance which told of the coming of the 
cattle and the loaded wagons; perhaps they believed 
it was raised by a troop of men, for without parley, and 
before one could have counted ten, they had wheeled 



38 PHILIP OF TEXAS 

about and were riding at their best pace in the opposite 
direction. 

So great was my rehef of mind that I felt incHned to 
make light of the adventure, but was straightway 
sobered when father said gravely : — 

''There is much to be feared from those rascally 
Comanches. The only reason I have not already 
cautioned you often and very strongly is because I 
feared to alarm your mother. Do not take any chances 
if, when you are alone, you come upon such as those 
who have just fled, but seek safety in flight if possible. 
If you cannot escape, make ready for a desperate de- 
fense, and e\'en when you are on our claim, have your 
weapons always ready for use." 

So intent had I been in planning what might be done 
in raising sheep, that the possibility of having trouble 
with the Indians never came into my mind ; but now 
that father had spoken as he did, I knew that beyond 
a doubt there w^as good reason for caution, if not for 
alarm. 

Straightway my thoughts went out into the future, 
as I asked myself how it would be possible, while 
herding sheep, to defend myself, for I well understood 
that onh' G\p and I could be spared to play the part 
of shepherds. All the others would be attending to 
the regular work of the ranch, and could not be ex- 
pected to give heed to me. 



THE ARRIVAL AT FORT TOWSON 



39 



THE ARRIVAL AT FORT TOWSON 

I was still turning this unpleasant prospect over in my 
mind when we arrived at Fort Towson, and then I 
began to believe the country of Texas was not all I had 
fancied. It was only reasonable for a lad like me to ex- 








pect that at this fort I would find something which re- 
sembled a fortification, and yet, so far as could be judged 
from the outside, it was no more than the ordinary build- 
ings of a ranchman, except that walls of sun-dried bricks 
connected the several structures, forming a square. On 
the side facing the south were two hea\y gates of logs, 
which now swung v/ide open, but it was plain to 



40 PHILir OF TEXAS 

be seen that the}' could be closed quickly if need 
arose. 

There were in charge of this ranchlike fort no more 
than six or seven men, and of these, two were Mexicans, 
while all wore the same gaudy costumes that may be 
seen in every Spanish settlement. 

PREPARING FOR A STORM 

It was yet early in the afternoon when we came to 
this halting place. We had no reason to complain of 
our reception, for the man who appeared to be the leader 
of the company came out even before we were ready to 
enter the inclosure, and said, while John and Zeba were 
driving the cattle to what seemed good pasturage, that 
it would be better for us if we herded the stock inside 
the fort. 

This caused me some surprise, for since early morn- 
ing the air had been so calm that a feather would not 
have been blown from a tree top, and the weather was 
warm and sultry, giving promise of discomfort if one 
were shut Avithin the four walls of the fort. 

I fancy even father was astonished because the man 
invited us inside when it was almost suffocatingly hot 
on the open prairie. Seeing that we hesitated, the leader 
of the small garrison pointed toward the west, where 
could be seen a few low-hanging, sluggish clouds drift- 
ing slowlv here and there, while at the same time I 



PREPARING FOR A STORM 



41 



thought I saw a yellow smudge low down on the northern 
horizon. 

"It's a norther," the man said as if believing he had 
explained matters sufficiently. When father still hesi- 
tated, he added, ''Your cattle will be stampeded when 




the wind comes, unless you 
have them corralled, and there 
is not time for you to get the 
wagons m position. 

I did not understand even then, for I had never 
been told anything whatsoever regarding these strange 
storms which are called ''northers" by Texans, but 
I noticed that father ran at full speed to give orders for 
John and Zeba to turn the cattle into the fort, and as 
he went he shouted for me to herd the sheep within 
the inclosure. 



42 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



Tlic man who had bidden us welcome aided me in 
the task, and more than that, for when the sheep were 
snugly inside, he ran back to tell the drivers of the 
wagons to get their mules unhooked and in a safe place 
before the wind came. 



We were hardly more than thus housed before a 
distant roaring could be heard, not unlike thunder, 




and in a short time 
the wind was upon 
us in a perfect hur- 
ricane, cold as icy 
water. 

At one instant 
the perspiration had 

been running down my face because of the exertion of 
hurrying the sheep and mules into the fort, and in tlie 



TWO KINDS OF "NORTHERS" 43 

next I felt as if I had taken a plunge into a bank of 
snow. 

My teeth chattered as I followed the Mexicans, who 
were running into one of the buildings, and I noticed, 
as I went at full speed, that the mules and the cattle 
had turned tail to the storm of wind, standing with 
lowered heads, as such beasts are wont to do during 
a tempest. 

There was no rain, but a sort of mist hung in the air, 
which soon gave way to a blue haze, and I fancied 
it had a peculiar odor, like the smoke from burning 
straw. I paid no great attention to it at the time, 
however, so eager was I to come to the heat of the fire, 
which had been speedily built in that hut to which the 
Mexicans fled for refuge. 

It was while I stood there striving to get some com- 
fort from the cheery blaze, that the leader of the com- 
pany came into the room. Joining me at the fireplace, 
and knowing of course by this time that I was having 
my first experience with a Texan ''norther," he ex- 
plained to me the peculiarity of these storms, which, 
as I found out later, are frequent in these regions. 

TWO KINDS OF '' NORTHERS '' 

The Texans divide the storms into what they call a 
wet, and a dry, norther. 

Wet northers are those which bring rain or sleet, 



44 PHILIP OF TEXAS 

and usually last twelve or fourteen hours without doing 
any particular damage, ending with a mild north or 
northwest wind. But the stock is likely to suffer from 
the storms, because of being wet with the sleet or 
rain, and then thoroughly chilled by that ice-cold 
wind. 

The dry norther I have already told about. Our host 
explained to me that it might continue fiercely for from 
twenty-four to forty-eight hours, then gradually die 
away in from twelve to eighteen hours, during 
all of which time that penetrating cold would con- 
tinue. 

I soon came to understand that the man had told 
no more than the truth, for father said, when he finally 
came where I was, that we should probably have to 
remain penned up in Fort Towson two or three days, 
and advised me to make myself as comfortable as pos- 
sible, for we were welcome to the use of any of the 
buildings. 

The only way in which I could follow this advice wg^s 
to hug the fire as closely as possible, for whenever I 
moved a short distance away, that chilling air would 
envelop me as if with a mantle of ice, and I thought 
to myself more than once, that if I were to be caught 
out on the prairie herding a flock of sheep when one 
of these northers came up, I might freeze to death. 

I did, however, venture away from the heat long 



TWO KINDS OF ''NORTHERS 



45 



enough to make certain that my mother was comfort- 
able. There were two other women in the fort, one 
a Mexican who appeared to be a sort of servant, and 
the other the wife of that man w^ho had extended to us 
the hospitahty of the place. With these two my 
mother remained nearly forty hours, when the wind 

subsided and the air grew 
balmy once more. 
// "^i^ lU J^^^ I remained the greater 

f 




) l^5chaie t BobVnaOn.Elmert 



portion of that time in the hut where I first sought 
refuge. The hours were not wasted, for I had a 
strong desire to learn something regarding this country 
in which we were to make our new home. 



46 



PHILIP OF tp:xas 



HOW TURKEYS KILL RATTLESNAKES 

One of the Mexicans was a most talkative kind of per- 
son, and seeing that I was a tenderfoot from the cotton 
country, who had never before ventured away from 
home, undertook to amuse me by telhng stories, some 










v.^J'^^wf^ - 



of which I believed to be true, while others appeared 
extremely doubtful. 

When he made the statement that v/ild turkeys 
killed rattlesnakes, I set it down that he was drawing 
the long bow for my especial benefit ; but before I had 
lived in Texas six months I saw it done, and truly it 
was interesting. 



DEER AND RATTLESNAKES 47 

He said that he had seen, more than once, twelve or 
fifteen big gobblers dancing around in a circle, as if 
they were fighting. They gave no attention to him 
when he crept up quite near to them, and there saw 
in the midst of this circle a large rattlesnake, actually 
struggling for his life. 

The gobblers, one after the other, as if it had all been 
arranged beforehand, would spring high into the air and 
come down upon the snake, taking care not to get too 
near his head, and would strike him with one of their 
wings such a blow that the noise could be heard some 
distance away. Near by, as if they had no interest in 
what was going on, a flock of turkey hens might be 
feeding. 

As I have said, at that time I set it down as a fable, 
but more than once since then I have witnessed almost 
exactly such a fight, and never have I failed to see the 
rattlesnake killed. 

DEER AND RATTLESNAKES 

Another way of killing rattlesnakes, which the Mexi- 
can told about, was employed by deer, which, as we all 
know, will attack a snake whenever they come across 
one. He said that whenever a rattlesnake sees a deer 
coming, he seems to have a pretty good idea of what is 
in store for him, and at once loses courage. 

The snake coils himself up tightly, hiding his head 

PHILIP OF TEXAS — A 



48 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



beneath his body, as if understanding that it is of no 
use to struggle, and that he might better submit to 
martyrdom. 

The deer jumps up into the air, bringing all four feet 
together, and comes down with his sharp hoofs upon 
the coiled snake, cutting and mangling him until there 




'"^..^mV^H. 




is no longer any life in his long body. I have never 
seen anything of the kind ; but father says that he has 
heard of such killings again and again, and has no doubt 
whatsoever as to the truth of the story. 

Before the storm cleared away, but when the wind 
had so far subsided that one might venture out without 
fear of freezing to death, a big wagon train came up 



MAKING A CORRAL OF WAGONS 49 

toward the fort, evidently expecting to pass the night 
there. Then for the first time I saw those people who 
freight goods from the Missouri River down into Texas 
and Mexico form with their wagons what they call a 
corral. It was to me something well worth watching, 
even though I might have been more comfortable 
inside the building in front of a blazing fire. 

MAKING A CORRAL OF WAGONS 

The train was made up of heavy wagons, each drawn 
by four yoke of cattle. When the first came up in 
front of the fort, the driver turned his team at an angle 
with the trail, bringing the oxen away from the fort and 
the rear end of the wagon toward it. 

The second wagon was wheeled around within a 
short distance of the first, the intention of the team- 
sters being to halt the heavy carts in such positions 
that when all had arrived a circle would be formed, 
within which the cattle could be kept. On that 
side nearest the fort a passage between two of the 
wagons, five or six feet in width, was left open through 
which the oxen could be driven after they had been 
unyoked. 

. As soon as the cattle had been taken to where they 
might feed, heavy ropes were stretched across the 
opening, so that the four mules which had been 
driven by the owners of the train were actually fenced 



so 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



in, and there was no need either to hobble or to make 
them fast with a picket hne, for they could not make 
their way out between the wagons. 

It was all done in a way which showed that these 
people had been accustomed to making camp quickly 




so that they would 
ha\e a place where 
they might corral the 

stock, and stand some chance of defending themselves 

against Indians. 

It was this precaution on the part of the teamsters 

which gave me yet more reason than I had on meeting 

the Comanches to understand that in this country 



ON THE TRAIL ONCE MORE 51 

there were many chances that we might be called upon 
to battle for our lives. 

One of the drivers told me that, on the march, when 
a norther springs up, they always make a corral in this 
fashion, forming it sufficiently large to herd all the 
cattle within the circle. If they are not sharply looked 
after, the animals will take to their heels as if fright- 
ened out of their wits. Therefore people who are 
accustomed to such sudden changes in the weather 
are ever on the lookout lest their cattle be left where 
they may not readily be bunched. Oxen will become 
wilder through fear of a norther than they can be 
made through the shrieking and yelling of Indians who 
are trying to stampede them. 

ON THE TRAIL ONCE MORE 

On the second morning after our arrival at Fort 
Towson we set off once more, father and mother lead- 
ing the way in the small mule cart, and I following 
behind the three wagons, while John and Zeba brought 
up the rear with the cattle, which, having had a welcome 
rest at the fort, were now traveling at a reasonably 
rapid pace, so fast, in fact, that Gyp and I had to urge 
the sheep along at their best speed lest we be overrun. 

At the end of the first day's journey father told me 
that we had crossed over the border line of the republic, 
and were then in Texas. This was pleasing news. 



52 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



because the long journey had become decidedly weari- 
some. 

MESQUITE 

During the day we had been traveling over rolling 
land, which was covered with rich grass and looked 
not unlike what I have heard about the ocean, for 
we climbed over billow after billow and saw the same 
sea of undulating green stretched out before us, with 
here and there a small clump of oak or pecan trees, 
or thickets of mesquite. 




Mesquite, of which there is so much in Texas, some- 
times grows to the height of thirty or forty feet, but 
as a rule it is found as bushes no more than five or six 
feet high. It bears a pod something like a bean, 



MESQUITE 



53 










which, before ripening is soft and exceedingly sweet, 
and so very pleasant to the taste that white people 
as well as Indians gather it as fruit. The wood of the 
mesquite, which may be found reasonably large in 
size, and which is of a brown or red color when pohshed, 
but exceedingly hard to work, is valuable for the un- 
derpinnings of houses, for fence posts, and even for 
furniture. 

The next morning after we had crossed the Texas 
line we came upon the very thing in which I had the 
greatest interest, a sheep ranch, and I urged father 
to halt there for an hour or more that I might see 
how the animals were cared for here in this country, 
as compared with our manner of feeding and housing 
them in Mississippi. 



54 PHILIP OF TEXAS 

A TEXAS SHEEP RANCH 

Save for the house in which the shepherds hve, I saw 
very httle in the way of buildings for sheltering the 
stock. There were immediately around the dwelling 
(which, by the way was made partly of sun-dried brick 
and partly of mesquite wood) twenty or thirty small 
sheep pens, with cribs inside formed of rails loosely 
laid together, the whole looking as if some indolent 
person had decided to start in the sheep-raising busi- 
ness with as little labor as possible. 

The only person we could see on the ranch was a man 
who acted as cook. Fortunately for me, he appeared 
more than willing to answer the many questions I was 
eager to ask. In the first place, he told me, as others 
had, that the northern part of Texas was not adapted 
to sheep raising in comparison with the western, or the 
panhandle, section, but that the owners of the ranch 
were making a very profitable business out of it just at 
that time. 

They had four herders for about five thousand sheep. 
Each herder had a dog, and with his dog he remained 
out on the range month after month, being allowed so 
many lambs or sheep every thirty days for his own 
food. The two were supplied by the cook with the 
other things they might need, such as flour, a bit of 
bacon, and salt. The wages paid at that time were only 
twenty dollars a month. 



THE PROFITS FROM SHEEP RAISING 



55 



THE PROFITS FROM SHEEP RAISING 



The cook had some 
marvelous stories to 
tell of the money 
that might be made 
in Texas by sheep 
raising, and among 
them was this : — 

A man for whom 
he worked had a 
flock of fifteen hun- 
dred sheep, which he 
let out to a herder on 
shares. He gave the 
herder one quarter 
of the wool, and one 

quarter of the increase in lambs ; he also furnished the 
salt, the sheep dip, and, of course, the herder's food. 
Here are the figures which the cook showed me set 
down in a greasy pocket book of his, and which he 
declared were absolutely true. The owner received for 
the wool, after the herder had taken his share, eight 
hundred dollars ; the increase in lambs was eight 
hundred, which at even a dollar and a half amounted 
to twelve hundred dollars. Of this last one fourth 
went to the herder, leaving nine hundred dollars for 




56 PHILiP OF TEXAS 

the increase. Thus the owner of the sheep received as 
a net profit from a flock of only fifteen hundred sheep 
seventeen hundred dollars, which is almost as well as 
he could have done in Mississippi. 

Even though I had not been bent on sheep raising be- 
fore we entered Texas, that story alone would have been 
sufficient to excite my desire to engage in it. It is true 
my twelve sheep would make a sorry showing by the 
side of fifteen hundred, but yet I was only twelve years 
old, and, as I had said to myself again and again, 
fortune must go against me exceedingly hard if by the 
time I had come to manhood I could not show more 
than fifteen hundred, even though the beginning had 
been so small. 

father's land claim 

After seeing that sheep ranch and hearing the stories 
told of the money that might be made in the business, 
I was more eager than ever to come to that claim which 
father had staked out, so I might get my share of the 
flock in good condition while we were building our horae, 
and there was no portion of the journey that seemed 
so long and so wearisome to me as the eight and forty 
hours after we left the ranch. Then we came to the 
location of our new home, and had it not been for that 
experience with the dry norther, I would have said 
that in such a spot a lad might live until he was gray- 
headed, with never a desire to leave. 



THE CHAPARRAL COCK 57 

SPANISH MEASUREMENTS 

The claim was located, as I have said, on the West 
Fork of the Trinity River, but it must not be supposed 
that our land ran any very great distance along the 
stream, for the laws of Texas regarding the taking up 
of a homestead claim prohibited a man from occupying 
on the river bank more than a certain distance, that is 
to say, he could have one Spanish vara to each acre 
in a survey of three hundred and twenty acres, and 
three fourths of a vara per acre for all other surveys. 

You may be certain my father had taken all the land 
adjoining the stream which the law allowed him, and 
I was well pleased that we had such a large share of 
river frontage. 

I was wholly ignorant about Spanish measurements 
at the time we arrived, but since then I have fixed the 
tables in my head fairly well. A vara is a little over 
thirty-three inches ; a labor is about one hundred and 
seventy-seven acres. Of course we reckoned our boun- 
daries in American measurements, but in all our re- 
lations with the Mexicans it was necessary to know of 
what we were speaking. 

THE CHAPARRAL COCK 

Father's claim was in a valley where was a large 
motte, or grove, of pecan trees. As we came up to the 



58 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



place a l)ir(l called a chaparral cock looked down on 
me with what 1 fancied was a note of welcome. It 
seemed to me a happy omen that the little fellow should 
have uttered his cry at the very moment my eyes rested 
upon him. 

His head was cocked on one side, and his black, beady 
eyes twinkled in a most kindly fashion, so that I hailed 

rgu him as a friend and 



^^ 



f\ 



'^Ji^^ 








vowed that , neither 
he nor any of his 
family should come 
to harm through me 
unless it might be 
that we were sorely 
pressed for food. But 
it did not appear 
to me probable we 
should ever be put 
to such straits as that of killing a bird who thus made 
us welcome. 

Father had already decided upon the location of the 
house, which was to be just south of the pecan trees, 
which would shelter us from those icy northers. The 
three wagons and the two-mule cart were therefore 
drawn up side by side at the very spot where he in- 
tended to build the dwelling, so that we might use them 
for lodgings until we had a better place. 



OUR FIRST NIGHT ON THP: TRINITY 



59 



OUR FIRST NIGHT ON THE TRINITY 

The live stock were turned out that night to wander 
as they would. We had no fear of their straying, for 
since leaving Fort Towson all the animals had been 
pushed forward at their best pace, and every one was 
sufhciently weary to remain near at hand. 

Before darkness had come we learned that the little 
chaparral cock was not the only neighbor we were to 
have in our new home, for there came from the distance 
what sounded like screams of pain, and sharp, yelping 
barks. The hair stood up on Gyp's back, and he 




mim 



mpfw^- 






bared his teeth as if ready for a most desperate strug- 
gle, while I took good care to keep him close beside me 



6o PHILIP OF TEXAS 

as I tumbled into the two-mule cart for my rifle, not 
knowing what danger threatened us. 

Then father laughed heartily and told me that the 
dismal, blood-curdling noises which I heard came from 
a pack of coyotes, or wolves, howling, perhaps in ex- 
pectation of getting supper. He predicted that we 
would soon become accustomed to such disagreeable 
noises, for there was Kttle doubt but that these beasts 
would remain our neighbors until we could kill them 
off, or, at least, make them afraid of venturing near our 
clearing. 

A large part of the goods was thrown out of the wagons 
that we might spread our beds in comfort, for it was 
expected that we should live under the canvas cover- 
ings until we had built our house; the first work nec- 
essary was the setting up of some kind of shanty to serve 
as a cook room. 

That night, however, a fire was built in the open, 
and over it mother prepared the evening meal while 
father and I milked the cows. With smoking hot corn 
bread, fried bacon, bacon fat in which to dip the bread, 
and plenty of fresh milk, we had such a meal as tired 
emigrants could fully appreciate. 

STANDING GUARD 

If I imagined that all of us were to lie down in the 
wagons and take our rest on this first night after arriv- 



STANDING GUARD 



6i 



ing at the Trinity, I was very much mistaken. Father 
made me forget all about sleep and rest, when he said 
that unless we kept sharp watch against the coyotes 
we were likely to lose several sheep before morning, 
and that it was necessary that at least two of us stand 
guard throughout the night. 

If only the oxen or the mules had been in danger, 
perhaps I w^ould not have been so eager to shoulder my 




rifle and, in company with Zeba, tramp around and 
around the animals until midnight. As it was, how- 
ever, I did my duty faithfully, and when the night was 
half spent, father came out with John to relieve us. 
I was so weary that when I crawled into one of the 
wagons on to the soft feather bed, it seemed to me as 



62 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 




if my legs would drop from my body, 
and my eyes were so heavy with 
slumber that it was only by the great- 
est exertion I could keep them open. 

When next I was conscious of my surroundings, the 
rising sun was sending long yellow shafts of light be- 
neath the canvas covering of the wagon ; the little 
chaparral cock was calling out from the pecan motte 
near at hand, as if to assure me he still stood my friend ; 
while far away could be heard the shrieks, yelps, and 
barks of the cowardly wolves which had been sneaking 
around our flock of sheep all night. 



A TURKEY BUZZARD 

I came out of the wagon with a bound, determined 
that from this on until I had my 
flock of five thousand sheep, there 
should be no dallying on 
my part. 

As I started toward the 




A TURKEY BUZZARD 63 

stream for a morning bath, a big black shadow came 
between me and the sun. Looking up, I saw for 
the first time a turkey buzzard, his black coat and 
red crest showing vividly against the sky as he 
flapped lazily in front of me to alight in the near 
vicinity of the chaparral cock. I was so super- 
stitious as to believe for the moment that the 
sudden appearance of this disagreeable-looking bird 
at the very moment when the little cock was bidding 
me good morning, threatened disaster to our scheme 
of making a home and to my plan of raising sheep. 

With the air fresh and bracing, the sunlight flooding 
everything with gold, and even with the dismal shrieks 
and yelps in the distance, it would have been a pretty 
poor kind of fellow who could have remained long 
disheartened, simply because a grumbling old turkey 
buzzard chanced to fly in front of him. 

The stream by the side of which I hoped to live for 
many a long year was not deep at this season, but clear 
as crystal, and just cool enough to give me the sensation 
of being keenly alive when I plunged in head foremost. 
I floundered about until I heard mother calhng for me 
to hurry while the corn bread was hot, lest I lose my 
share, for both she and father were ravenously hungry. 
While we ate we decided where the cook camp should 
be put up and how we would care for the cattle, the 
sheep, and the mules while we were building our house. 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



64 



PHILII^ OF TEXAS 



In fact, very many plans were laid during those ten or 
fifteen minutes, some of which were carried out at once. 

PLANS FOR BUILDING A HOUSE 

As for the cook shanty, we were not inclined to spend 
very much time over it. Simply a shelter from the dew 
and the sun, where mother might be screened from the 




wind, so she could use the 
cookstove we had brought 
wdth us, was all we needed. 

Father intended to build a house of lumber, even 
though at that time he knew that he would be forced 
to pay anywhere from twenty to thirty dollars a thou- 



PLANS FOR BUILDING A HOUSE 65 

sand feet for cheap boards, and then haul them no less 
than two hundred miles. 

After he had told me about the lumber I asked in 
wonder and surprise if he counted on spending so much 
money, when we might build a house as the Mexicans 
do, of adobe brick, with no more timber in it than would 
serve to hold up a roof of mud. He laughingly replied 
that when we had made a saw pit, he would show me 
how we might get out our own building material, and 
said that I was to have a hand in the manufacture, for 
he thought I could do my share of the sawing when I 
was not looking after the cattle or the sheep. 

Before leaving home he had made arrangements to 
keep with us the three negroes whom we had hired in 
Bolivar County, until we were fairly settled. Therefore 
we had seven pairs of hands in this house building, 
which should put the work along in reasonably rapid 
fashion, even though five of the laborers were not 
skilled. 

We spent no more time at breakfast than was neces- 
sary for eating and for roughly sketching out the plans 
for the day's work. After this each set about his task. 
I drove the sheep a short distance awa}^ toward the 
farther end of the valley, where they could conven- 
iently get at the water and yet find rich pasturage; 
John and Zeba picketed out the mules ; and father 
with the three negroes rounded up the cattle. 



66 PHILIP OF TEXAS 



THE COOK SHANTY 



This done, we set about making a shanty by digging 
to the depth of two or three feet a space about three 
yards wide and four yards long, around the sides of 
which we set branches of pecan trees. We planted 
poles at the four corners so that we could use the 
wagon covers for walls and roof. 

When this rudest kind of rude building was so far 
finished that it would screen us from the wind, we set 
up the cookstove, and mother began what in Bolivar 
County she would have called her regular Saturday's 
baking. After this we put on a roof of canvas, pinning 
the whole down as best we might with mesquite bushes, 
until we had a shed which would serve, but which was 
most crude looking. 

Although there was nothing on which we could pride 
ourselves in this first building, it had occupied us nearly 
the entire day, and I had no more than an hour in which 
to rest my weary limbs before it was necessary to stand 
guard over the sheep, lest the wolves carry off the 
beginnings of my flock. 

It was during this night, when it cost not only great 
effort, but real pain, to keep continually on the move 
lest I fall asleep, that I decided that at the very first 
opportunity I would build a corral. While our flock 
was so small, it would not be a very great task to 



THE COOK SHANTY 



67 



build a pen sufficiently large to hold the animals 
together, and at the same time shut out the wolves. 
There were enough mesquite 
bushes, or trees, to provide me 




with the necessary material, and I decided upon the 
place where I would build a pen, figuring in my mind 
how the work could be best done. 

Therefore, when father relieved me at midnight, I 
had in my mind's eye the first sheep pen put up on the 



68 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



West Fork of the Trinity, and already in imagination 
was on the high road to prosperity. 



A STORM OF RAIN 

When another morning came, my dreams of what the 
future might bring me had become decidedly cloudy, 
for the rain was falling, not furiously, as in the case of 
a norther or a short-lived tempest, but with a steady 
downfall which told of a long spell of disagreeable 
weather, and I was not the only member of our party 
to come ou^from the beds in the wagons looking dis- 
heartened, and un- 
comfortably damp. 
i , At our old home 
in Bolivar County 
the first sound in 
the morning which 
usually broke upon 
my ear was that 
of mother's singing 
as she prepare3 
breakfast. On this 
day she was in our 
cook house, but 
working in silence. 
So, forgetting my own discomfort in the fear that 
something might have gone wrong with her, I asked 




A DAY OF DISCOMFORT 69 

why I had not heard her morning song. In reply 
she pointed first to the heavens, and then to our 
stock of household belongings, which were strewn here 
and there where they had been taken from the wagons. 
To give her cheer, I tried to laugh, saying there was little 
among our goods which would come to harm because 
of the rain, and such as might be injured I would 
quickly get under cover. She replied in an injured 
tone that father had told her there were few rc!,instorms 
in Texas during the year, save when a norther raged. 

A DAY OF DISCOMFORT 

I ventured to jest with her, by saying most likely it 
had been arrange J for our especial benefit, as we were 
newcomers in the country and needed to be intro- 
duced 'to all varieties of climate. The light words 
failed to bring a smile td her lips. So, without loss of 
time, I set about carrying such of our belongings as 
might be injured by the rain to the shelter of the 
wagons, and had hardly more than begun the task 
when father returned, his face quite as glocffny as 
mother's. 

He tried to apologize for this sort of weather, and 
began by saying that from all he had learned during 
his first visit there was little danger that we should be 
visited by a very long storm. 

Even the negroes were out of humor, and although 



70 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



the morning was not cold, all were shivering, and looked 
as if they had been taking a bath in the stream. I 
asked Zeba what had happened. In sulky tones he 
told me that while he had been rounding up the cattle 
and bunching them at the upper end of the valley, so 




/A^ 



^. 






^^1^*^'^ 




that they would / WM^\^^W-^^ 

not Stray too far / / //^^U^^^^/^ - ^^^ 

on the prairie, he //tY , '/'V / 

had been treated to a 

veritable shower bath from the moisture on the 

mesquite bushes and the pecan trees. 



THINKING OF THE OLD HOME 

The chaparral cock was silent. Even the turkey 
buzzard had forsaken the pecan motte. The mules, 



THINKING OF THE OLD HOME 



71 




which I could see in the distance, were hanging their 
long ears dejectedly, and the cattle in a most forlorn 
manner stood humped up with their heads away from 
the wind. Only the sheep grazed with seeming con- 
tentment. 

When I went into the cook camp, in order to get my 
breakfast, I was thinking of the old plantation in 
Bolivar County, where, when it rained, we had good 
shelter instead of being homeless in the wilderness, 
as one might say. 

And surely we were in a wilderness, there on the 
banks of the Trinity, exposed to all the downpour, save 



72 PHILI'P OF TEXAS 

when we crawled into one of the wagons to shelter our- 
selves while mother continued her work. There is no 
need that I should say the breakfast was inviting, for my 
mother could cook the meanest of food in such a man- 
ner that it would appeal to one's appetite, yet we ate 
as if it were a duty rather than a pleasure to break our 
fast after so much watching. 

When the meal was ended, father set the negroes to 
gathering up the remainder of our goods that might 
be injured by dampness, and I, rather than remain 
idle when there was so much work to be done, took 
part in the task, until we had nearly everything 
sheltered . 

The only places of refuge against the storm were the 
miserable shanty we had put up so hastily and the small 
two-mule wagon in which father and mother had ridden. 

We were a mournful-looking company of emigrants, 
when, the last of the goods having been stowed away, 
we sat under one of the wagon bodies, while mother 
continued to work in the shanty regardless of the rain 
which came in through a hundred crevices. 

WAITING FOR THE SUN 

The negroes gathered about father and me, in order 
to take advantage of the shelter afforded by the wagon. 
We remained silent a full ten minutes before father 
strove to cheer our spirits by suggesting that a storm 



WAITING FOR THE SUN 



73 



at this season of the year could not last very many 
hours, and that by the following morning we should 
be rejoicing in the heat and the brightness of the sun. 
He was at fault in this prediction, however. During 
the remainder of the day we came out from the shelter 
now and then to make certain that the cattle, the mules, 




and the sheep yet remained within the valley, and then 
crept back once more to keep mournful silence, seldom 
breaking it, save when the meals were ready. 

The rain continued to fall steadily, and yet it was 
necessary we stand guard against the coyotes, who 
began to howl, and scream, and bark as soon as night 
came. No longer dreaming of making my fortune at 
sheep raising, I went off with Zeba just before darkness 



74 PHILIP OF TEXAS 

covered the earth, to begin the weary march around 
and around our herd of cattle and flock of sheep. I was 
soon drenched to the skin, and wished that father had 
never been attacked by the Texas fever. 

I wondered during that long, wet, disagreeable time 
of watching where the other newly arrived settlers 
had besfun to make homes in Texas. I knew that hun- 

o 

dreds of families near us in Bolivar County, and from 
Kentucky and Missouri, had come into this republic 
of Texas, and it seemed, as I thought it over, most sin- 
gular that we had failed to meet with any of them. 

The storm, the darkness, and the irritating calls of 
the coyotes had so worked upon my mind that I came 
to believe that all the stories we had heard of people 
who were to make homes in this new country had been 
false. It seemed to me that we were the only per- 
sons in the United States who had been so fooKsh as 
to venture across the Red River with wild dreams of 
fertile ranches and rapidly increasing herds of cattle 
or flocks of sheep. 

TOO MUCH WATER 

Three days passed before we again rejoiced in the 
light of the sun. During that time so much discomfort 
and actual danger had been met that I was sick at 
heart at the very sound of the name of Texas. 

Before the end of the second day we had succeeded 



TOO MUCH WATER 



75 



in making the cook shanty nearly waterproof, by strip- 
ping all the wagons of their covers, and pinning the 
canvas down over the pecan branches. This left our 
goods exposed to the rain, and many of our belong- 
ings were necessarily ruined, although we took little 
heed of that fact, 



if only it was pos- 
sible to give mother 
some degree of com- 
fort. 

On the morning 
of the third day the 
valley was dotted 
here and there with 
pools of water, 
showing that the 
soil had drunk its 
fill and refused to 
take in more. In 
order to move about in the valley, it was necessary 
at times to wade ankle-deep. The result was that 
father and I, as well as the negroes, were forced to 
wear garments saturated with w^ater, since it would 
have been useless to put on dry clothes, for after 
an hour of tramping to and fro they would have been 
in the same wet condition. Yet we had no thought 
of real danger. There was in our minds simply the 




76 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



painful idea that we must endure what could not be 
avoided ; we never dreamed that worse was to come. 



THE STREAM RISING 



Just before time for dinner on the third day I noticed 
that the sheep were making their way rapidly up out 




of the valley, and, fearing lest they might stray so far 
that it would be impossible to herd them before night- 
fall, I followed, leaving father and the negroes crouch- 
ing under one of the wagon bodies. 

To my surprise, when I had walked a few yards from 



TRYING TO SAVE THE STOCK 77 

where we were encamped, 1 found the water in many 
of the pools nearly ankle-deep, and saw that the western 
side of the valley, that part farthest from the stream, 
was literally flooded. 

Strange as it may seem, neither father nor I had 
given any particular heed to the rising of the stream. 
There was in our minds, dimly perhaps, an idea that 
the amount of water had increased during this long 
storm, and we were not disquieted on seeing it come 
up to the height of the banks ; but now, being warned 
by the depth of water in the valley, I quite forgot the 
sheep for an instant, and ran back to where I could 
have a full view of the river. 

The flood was already overlapping the banks at the 
northern end of the valley, a fact which accounted for 
the quantity of water I had found while going toward 
the sheep, and I fancied it was possible to hear, far 
away in the distance, a roaring noise such as a water- 
fall might produce. 

TRYING TO SAVE THE STOCK 

Heedless of the fact that my twelve sheep were 
stampeded, I ran swiftly along the edge of the stream 
toward the wagons, shouting wildly that a flood was 
upon us. I was yet twenty or thirty yards distant 
when father came out to learn why I was raising such 
an alarm. 



78 



PHILIp of TEXAS 



It needed but one glance for him to understand that 
we were in the gravest danger. Even while I ran, it 
was possible for me to see the river rising, rising, until 
what, at the moment I set off to herd the sheep, had 
been comparatively dry land, was being flooded so 




rapidly that before I had gained the wagons, they were 
standing a full inch deep in the water. 

Father ran hurriedly, with a look of alarm on his 
face, toward the cook shanty and shouted for mother 
to make all haste, to leave everything behind her, and 
to clamber into one of the wagons. Then, turning to 
the negroes, he literally drove them out from their 
shelter, ordering them to round up the mules without 



THE ANIMALS STAMPEDED 



79 



delay so we might hitch them to the wagons. It was 
not necessary that I should be told to obey this com- 
mand on the instant, even though it was not directed 
to me. I wheeled about, intending to turn the mules 
in the direction of the wagons, leaving the slaves to 
bring up the harness, but while doing so, I saw that we 
were too late by at least three or four minutes, for the 
mules, having already taken alarm by the rising of the 
water, were making their way at a quick pace up the 
incline which led to the higher land, following directly 
behind the sheep. 

THE ANIMALS STAMPEDED 

Probably, if I had moved more cautiously, I might 
have circled around them, and thus checked their 
flight until the negroes could come up ; but I was so 
thoroughly alarmed by the rapid rise of the water 
and the ominous roaring in the distance, that I set 
off at full speed directly toward the animals, and in a 
twinkling they broke into a gallop, stampeding the 
sheep by plunging among them. 

As if this was not sufhcient disaster, the cattle, w^hich 
had been feeding fully a mile farther down the valley, 
now wheeled suddenly about in alarm, and set off 
over the ridge, bellowing with fear, their tails swing- 
ing high in the air. 

So unreasoning was I in the sudden fright which 

nriLIP OF TEXAS — 6 



8o 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



had come upon me, that I failed to reahze it would 
be useless to pursue any of our live stock, until father 
shouted for me to turn back without l6ss of time. 
His voice, even though he was no more than two 
hundred yards away, came dimly to my ears because 
of the increasing roar 
in the distance, which 
sounded more and more 
threatening each instant. 




When I gathered my wits about me suflficiently to 
obey the command, I saw that he, with the negroes, was 
striving desperately to haul one of the heavy wagons 
from the bank of the stream ; but so sodden with water 
was the earth that the wheels sank into the soft surface 
to the depth of two or three inches, and, struggle as 
they might, it could not be moved a single pace. 



SAVING OUR OWN LIVES 



SAVING OUR OWN LIVES 

''Gather up the spare clothing, and take your mother 
with you !" father shouted as I came up to where the 




black men were standing dumbly by the side of the 
wagon they had so vainly attempted to haul. I cried 
out dully, grown stupid with fear, asking where I should 
go with mother; but even while speaking, I had suffi- 
cient common sense remaining to pull out from among 



82 PHILIP OF TEXAS 

our belongings as many water-soaked garments as I 
could get my hands on. , 

''Go to the high land !" father shouted, and literally 
dragged mother out from her seat in the wagon, where 
she had been crouching since the water flooded the 
cook camp. She had her wits about her sufficiently 
to understand what father would have us do. Calling 
on me to follow, she took from my arms a portion of 
the burden and set off straight across that increasing 
flood of water in the direction taken by the animals. 
She realized that they, prompted by instinct, would 
lead the way to the highest point of land. 

Thus we two, mother and I, abandoned father and 
all our belongings, and it surely seemed as if we were 
leaving him to a terrible fate. I would have come to 
a full stop in order to urge him to follow us, but mother 
called out that I should not slacken pace. She said 
that he knew better than we what should be done, 
and that he would follow without loss of time. 

It seemed to me that we had no sooner gained the 
top of the bank, and from there the highest point of one 
of the prairie hills, when, looking around, I saw father 
and the negroes coming at full speed, as if fleeing from 
death itself. And this really was the case, as I saw 
a few seconds later. I would have run toward the edge 
of the valley in the hope of helping them, but mother 
held me back. 



A RAGING TORRENT 



83 



A RAGING TORRENT 



The roar of the coming flood was deafening. Father 
and the slaves were yet clambering up the side of the 
valley when I saw, coming down the channel of the 




river, a raging torrent which 

bore on its surface trunks of 

trees such as would have dealt death to any one who 

might have been in their line of advance. On the waters 

were fragments of wood, bunches of mesquite bushes, 

and I fancied now and then the body of an ox ; but it 

was all a scene of confusion, of noise, and of menace. 



84 PHILllP OF TEXAS 

During perhaps ten seconds I felt certain father 
would be swept away by the raging stream which was 
filling the valley. The torrent swelled until the crest 
of the muddy waves swept against Zeba's legs, for he 
was the last of that little company struggling to save 
his life. Not one moment too soon did father and 
the negroes gain the high land. They were hardly in 
safety when all our valley was filled with water, and I 
knew that beneath the flood was everything we owned 
in the world save the live stock. 

Father came swiftly on until he stoud by mother's 
side, clasping both her hands. But he spoke not a word, 
and I realized that we had come from Bolivar County 
with all our belongings only to have them swept away, 
and that we were destitute. 

As I saw a huge pecan tree, tossing and rolling on 
the brown waves, I asked myself if such a monster 
could be thrown about like a straw, what must become 
of our wagons in the valley ? 

A TIME OF DISASTER 

It was much like mockery to see the clouds break- 
ing away immediately after all the mischief had been 
done. Before we had been upon the high land ten 
minutes the clouds gave way here and there, until we 
could see a glint of the sun. The rain ceased falling, 
and he would have been a poor weather prophet indeed 



A TIME OF DISASTER 



85 



who could not have foretold that the long storm had 
come to an end ; but, as I said bitterly to myself, it had 
brought with it the end of all our dreams. 

The cattle, mules, and sheep had stampeded. Far 
away in the distance I could see that little flock of mine, 




and yet farther beyond them, barely to be distinguished 
by the naked eye, were the cattle. 

The mules had disappeared entirely, and I, who was 
ignorant of a ranchman's work, believed for the moment 
that we had seen the last of every head of stock and 
that we could never round them up again. 

I looked to see father overwhelmed with sorrow^ and. 



86 PHILIP OF TEXAS 

therefore, great was my surprise when I heard him say 
cheerily : — 

"It is well that we had this experience early in our 
Texan life, else the disaster might have been greater. 
Now we know it would be in the highest degree unwise 
to build our home in the valley, for if the stream rises 
in flood once, it will again, and we might lose our lives. 
It will not require any great length of time for us to 
make good the damage that has been done." 

It almost vexed me that he should speak so lightly 
of what seemed to me a disaster which could not be 
repaired. When I asked how matters might possibly 
be worse, he replied laughingly that we were still alive, 
our stock would not stray so far but that we could soon 
herd them up, and there were many things in the 
wagons which would not be seriously harmed by the 
wetting. 

To this day I am inclined to believe he put the best 
face possible upon the matter, so that mother might 
not grieve, and certainly his cheery words helped us all. 
What was more to the purpose, the fact that he "set 
each one some task to perform prevented us from 
dwelling upon the possibilities of the future. 

THE FLOOD SUBSIDING 

The storm had cleared away like magic ; within half 
an hour from the time our valley was flooded and the 



THE FLOOD SUBSIDING 



87 



rain had ceased falling, the sun was shining brightly. 
The waters were no longer rising, and I did not need 
father to tell me they must, as a matter of course, 
subside quite as quickly as they had come. 

Already I fancied that the tide was falling and that the 
torrent swept past with less force. I would have stood 




idly watching it, but that father insisted I should go 
with him and the negroes to a motte of pecans a short 
distance away, there to set about putting up a shelter 
for mother's comfort. 

It was well we were forced to work to the utmost of 
our power, and so we did. When night came, mother 
at least had a shelter over her head. The black men 



8S PHILIP OF TEXAS 

and I were content to lie down anywhere beneath the 
mesquite bushes, and there we slept soundly as if no 
disaster had overtaken us. There was no need of 
standing guard against the wolves, for we no longer 
had anything save ourselves to watch over. 

When I expressed my fear that the wolves might kill 
the greater number of our sheep, father insisted that 
there was more than a possibility that all the flock 
would be found ; and he promised that if any were 
killed during the night, he would make my loss good 
from his own share of the flock. 

A JACK RABBIT 

When I awoke the first rays of the sun were falling 
through the mesquite bushes fairly upon my face. A 
jack rabbit, his long ears flapping comically as he 
humped across the prairie, stopped when he was nearly 
opposite the motte of pecans to wonder who these 
people were, who had come to disturb him. This was 
the first object to meet my gaze, and however great 
might have been the sorrow in my heart, I could not 
have kept from laughing long and loud at the ridiculous 
creature. 

I soon saw, however, that his clownish appearance 
was not to be counted strongly against him, for, startled 
by my rising quickly, he darted away with the fleet- 
ness of a deer. I question whether, if my rifle had been 



A JACK RABBIT 



89 



at that moment in my hands ready for use, I could have 
done more than take aim before he was out of sight 
among the bushes. 

Then came a cheery good morning, as I interpreted 
it, from a chaparral cock, and I fancied it was the same 
fellow who had welcomed us to the valley. Following 




this friendly morning greeting came the screaming of 
a bird which I afterward knew was called a killdeer. 
I was wondrously cheered by the sight and sounds of 
life around. 



90 



PHILI'P OF TEXAS 



REPAIRING DAMAGES 

Then came the work of the day, the first for me 
being to build a fire, even though there was nothing to 
be cooked. It had been my duty at home in Bolivar 

County to per- 
form this service, 
and unwittingly 
I did it then, not 
remembering the 
fact that all our 
provisions were 
at the bottom of 
that brown flood. 
Mother asked, as 
she came out 
P^^^j from her poor 
' ^ ' ^^ shelter, why I 
thought it neces- 
sary to start a 
blaze. I looked 
dumbly back at the valley which we had left in such 
haste, and to my surprise saw the tops of the wagons 
just appearing above the surface of the water, so rapidly 
had the torrent subsided. Father said laughingly, as 
if it was a matter which amused him exceedingly : — 
"We will wait for breakfast until we can get a side 







fUahfttl TUtt'.nsonEJw 






i«^ 



ROUNDING UP THE LIVE STOCK 91 

of bacon from one of the wagons, unless you, Philip, 
are inclined to dive beneath the water for one." 

It was evident we were to have little to eat during 
that day if we depended upon rescuing anything 
eatable from the flood. So I suddenly determined 
that I would not be outdone by father in cheerfulness 
and proposed that John go with me in search of the 
cattle. 

"I am thinking all of us must take a hand in that 
work," father said. Then turning to mother, he 
asked if she would be willing to remain there among the 
pecan trees alone while we roamed the prairie in search 
of the cattle. 

It was a useless question, for my mother was a woman 
who always stood ready to do that which came to her 
hand, regardless of her own pleasure or inclination. 

ROUNDING UP THE LIVE STOCK 

We set off at once, hungry as we were, on what I 
thought would be a useless journey. I was prepared 
to tramp all day, if necessary, without getting sight 
of a single animal belonging to us, and yet, greatly 
to my surprise, an hour before noon we came upon the 
entire flock of sheep with never a one missing. They 
were feeding as peacefully as if they had been herded 
by a better shepherd than I ever claimed to be. 

Gyp, who had kept close to my heels from the time the 



92 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



waters first came down upon us, now seemed to recover 
his spirits. For the first time since we Had been forced 
to flee for our fives he gave vent to a series of joyful 
barks, running around and around the flock as if he 
had been ordered to do so. 

Father proposed that Gyp and I return with the 

flock to where mother was waiting, while he and the 

_ negroes continued 

in search of the 
cattle and mules. 
Against this I was 
not inclined to 
make any protest, 
for it had worried 
me not a little be- 
cause she was alone, 
although I failed to 
understand how 
any harm could 
come to her. ^ 

When the after- 
noon was about half 
spent, the negroes that father had hired as mule drivers 
came in with all our herd of oxen and cows. They re- 
ported that father, with John and Zeba, had kept on 
having seen the mules far away in the distance, and 
it was reasonable to suppose they would return to us 













THE FIRST MEAL AFTER THE FLOOD 



93 



before night had set in. This they did not do, however, 
and mother and I were troubled because of their absence, 
yet we could do nothing but sit there, idly watching the 
sheep and gazing down now and then into the valley 
to mark the ebb of the waters. 



?V 




THE FIRST MEAL AFTER THE FLOOD 

Half an hour before sunset, when the wagons stood 
out plainly in view, with the flood hardly more than up 



94 PHILIP OF TEXAS 

to their axles, I called upon the negroes to follow me, 
and we set out to look among our belongings for some- 
thing to eat. 

After searching about we came upon a side of bacon, 
which looked but little the worse for its long bath, save 
that it was coated in a most unpleasant fashion with 
mud. Thinking it impossible for us to find any other 
thing in condition for eating until after it had been 
well dried, we turned to the grove of pecans with our 
small prize. 

I built a fire near where mother's shelter of branches 
and leaves had been set up. Then from the mesquite 
bushes I cut twigs which would serve as forks to hold 
the meat in front of the blaze. After this I carved the 
bacon with the knife from my belt, and mother broiled 
slice after slice, the savory odor causing me to realize 
how exceedingly hungry I was. 

We ate heartily, almost greedily. When our hunger 
had been partly satisfied, we sat down to await the 
coming of father, speculating upon his prolonged ab- 
sence, until we had imagined that all sorts of evil had 
befallen him. 

WAITING FOR FATHER 

He who crosses a bridge before he comes to it, or, in 
other words, the man or the lad who looks into the 
future for trouble, proves himself to be foolish, for all 



WAITING FOR FATHER 



95 



the worry of mind one may suffer will not change events 
by so much as a hair's breadth. 

If mother and I had remained there talking of this 
thing or of that which had happened in Bolivar County, 

and not looking out across 
the prairie with the idea that 
> harm had befallen father, 
^^ then the evening might have 
been a pleasant one ; but in- 
stead, we were almost dis- 
tracted with fear, until about 
midnight, when the tramp- 
ling of hoofs in the distance 
told us that the mules had 
been rounded up. 

It seemed strange to me, 




PHILIP OF TEXAS- 



96 PHILIP OF TEXAS 

when father and the negroes came into camp, bringing 
the mules with them, that in the stampede we had not 
lost a single animal. Every ox, cow, mule, and sheep 
that had been with us in the valley before the flood 
was now returned and herded in front of the pecan 
motte as peacefully as though nothing had occurred. 
But not far away we could hear the snarling, shriek- 
ing, and barking of the coyotes which served almost to 
make it seem as if that flood had been no more than 
a disagreeable dream. 

That night the hired negroes and I stood watch. 
Father, John, and Zeba had traveled so far afoot, 
and were so weary that I could not have the heart 
to rouse them when it came time for our relief from 
duty, and so we paced around the herds and flock 
until daylight. 

When the first rays of the sun glinted all the foliage 
around us with gold, it was possible for me to look down 
into the \'alley from which we had fled, and get some 
slight idea of the misfortune that had overtaken us. 

Because of the weight of the wagons, and owing to the 
fact that they were heavily laden with farming tools 
and such things as would not float, they had hardly 
been disturbed. Also, owing, I suppose, in a great 
degree, to their, being sunk so far in the mud after the 
first onrush of the torrent, they had not been knocked 
about to any extent. 



RECOVERING OUR GOODS 



97 



RECOVERING OUR GOODS 



As a matter of course everything, including the grass, 
was covered with mud ; but the water, except here 
and there where it stood in small pools on the surface, 




had retreated to its proper place between the banks, 
and there was nothing to prevent us from caring for 
our goods. 

Mother cooked all that was left of the bacon, after 
which, with hunger still gnawing at our stomachs, we 
went down to set our belongings to rights, and a weari- 
som.e day it was. 



98 PHltiP OF TEXAS 

The harness of the mules had been swept down- 
stream so far that we did not come upon any portion 
of it until the day was nearly done. Therefore, we 
could not make any effort toward dragging the wagons 
to the hard ground, but were forced to carry in our 
hands every article which it was necessary to spread 
out upon the clean grass to dry. 

About nightfall, after having found enough harness 
for one team of mules, we succeeded in getting a single 
cart up to where mother's camp had been made. Then 
it began to look as if we had really taken possession 
of this portion of Texas, for all around were spread 
clothing, bedding, household furniture, farming tools, 
and this thing and that which went to make up the 
cargo we had brought from Bolivar County. 

The wagon covers which had been spread over our 
cook camp had floated down the stream beyond the 
possibility of our finding them before another day. 
Therefore, that night, my mother slept once more in 
her shelter of branches and leaves ; father and I made 
a bed for ourselves in the water-soaked wagon ; and 
the negroes, or such of them as were not on duty 
guarding the cattle, lay down on the ground beneath it. 

SETTING TO WORK IN GOOD EARNEST 

From this on we had plenty with which to occupy 
our hands as well as our minds. There was ever the 



SETTING TO WORK IN GOOD EARNEST 99 

necessity of keeping the cattle rounded up, the sheep 
herded, and the mules from straying, and all this was 
the more difhcult because they were now on the prairie 
instead of in the valley. 

Father was determined that his first work in this 
new country should be the building of a house, and 
very shortly after the flood subsided, I understood 




what he meant, when he spoke of my taking a hand in 
getting out the lumber. 

First, as a matter of course, we hauled the other 
wagons out of the valley, making a small corral with 
them near the pecan motte where we had decided to 



loo PHILl? OF TEXAS 

build a home. Then we hunted during a full day along 
the banks of the river for such of our belongings as had 
been carried away by the flood, and found everything 
of value before the search was ended. 

Two of the negroes were told off to guard the flock 
and the herd, either father or I keeping a sharp eye on 
them meanwhile, lest they should neglect their duties. 
After the ground plan of our house was staked out, 
father blazed such of the trees as he decided must be 
feUed in order to provide us with lumber. 

The negroes were set at work cutting these down, 
whfle father made his preparations for that sawmill 
which amused me before it was finished, and caused 
my back and arms to ache sorely before it had fully 
served its purpose. 

SAWING OUT LUMBER 

Perhaps you may not be able to understand how we 
could convert the trunks of trees into lumber without 
a sawmiU, nor did T at first ; but, as I have said, I soon 
came to have a very clear and painful idea of how it 
might be done. 

First a deep trench eight or ten feet long, and perhaps 
four feet wide, was dug in the prairie near where the 
trees had been felled. At either end of this trench, 
standing perhaps three feet above the surface, was a 
scaffolding of small timbers. 



SAWING OUT LUMBER 



lOI 



When the first tree was down and had been trimmed 
of its branches, all hands were called to raise it up on 
these two scaffolds, and there it lay, each end pro- 
jecting four or five feet beyond the uprights. 




Directly over this, at one end, was a small, movable 
platform, as I may call it, constructed of the trees 
which could not be used for building purposes, and of 
such a height that he who stood upon it would be no 
less than three feet above the log which lay upon the 
scaffolding. 



I02 PHIUP OF TEXAS 

When this was done, father brought out from our 
belongings a long saw, such as we of BoHvar County 
called a crosscut. It had long teeth which were set up 
at wide angles, so that it would make a broad cut 
without being in danger of binding between the sides 
of the log. This saw was perhaps six feet long, and 
provided with a handle at each end projecting out on 
both sides of the blade in such a manner that one 
could seize it with both his hands. 

Then I began to have a very good idea of how 
timber might be produced without a mill, for father, 
directing me to stand in the pit w^hile he took his 
station on the platform above, made the first cut with 
the saw. After it had fairly been started in the groove 
I was called upon to work at the lower end of it, 
alternately pushing and pulling, while father did the 
same. Thus the sharp teeth were forced through the 
wood, slowly to be sure, but none the less steadily, 
and as we cut board after board the log was pushed for- 
ward or pulled back on the scaffolding so that ^Ye 
might not cut into the scaffolds. You may well fancy 
that I was not much pleased at thus being forced to 
do my share in getting out material for the house. 

LABORING IN THE SAW PIT 

Sheep herding is none too pleasant a task; but as 
compared with this hand sawmill of ours it seemed 



LABORING IN THE SAW PIT 



103 



like positive pleasure. I said to myself that I would 
never again complain of the hardships of herding a 
flock on no matter how large a range, because the 
memory of this method of working out lumber would 
always remain fresh in my mind. 

I was not in the pit very many hours during the day. 
One of the negroes 
was called to take 
my place at. inter- 
vals ; but we could 
not well trust this 
work, rough and 
arduous though it 
was, to the black 
men because of their 
carelessness. Once, 
when we left two of 
them alone while 
father and I helped 
mother with the 
family washing at 
the bank of the 

creek, we found that the stupid fellows, instead of 
sawing the board the same thickness all the way 
along, had made it thin in one place and thick in 
another, until it was practically useless for building 
purposes. 




I04 



PHltLir OF TEXAS 



WILD CATTLE 



Before we had worked out by this slow process all 
the lumber that would be necessary for making our 
home, we were surprised to find that our herd of cattle 
had been increased by three handsome beasts, two cows 




and a bull, black as coals, 
with glistening, long, white 
horns. 

They suddenly appeared among our herd, ^'^^ 
causing me, who first discovered them, the greatest pos- 
sible surprise. It seemed almost like somie work of 
magic that we should have gained these fellows without 
raising a hand. Thinking that they might be branded, 
as is the custom in Texas, I tried to come near enough 
to find out, but I soon understood that I might as well 
have tried to make close acquaintance with the shiest 
antelope that ever crossed the prairie. 

These cattle were so wild that at the first sight of 



A DISAGREEABLE INTRUDER 105 

a man they would toss up their horns, bellow, and set 
off across the country with their tails raised high as 
a signal of danger, putting the very spirit of mischief 
into our cattle. 

After making two or three vain attempts to come up 
with them, I realized that unless I would take the 
chances of stampeding our whole herd^ I must leave 
them alone. 

When I told father of the wonderful discovery that 
we had grown the richer by three cattle, he treated 
the matter very calmly and explained the seeming 
mystery by saying that we were not the only persons 
who had found additions to their live stock, for during 
his first visit to Texas he had heard much concerning 
such cattle. 

During the years from 1834 to 1836, when the Mexi- 
can army was retreating, the Indians ravaged the 
country between the Nueces and the Rio Grande to 
such extent that the Mexicans, owners and herdsmen, 
abandoned their stock ranches, leaving behind them 
large herds of cattle which could not be carried away 
save at great risk, and these beasts had since then 
multiplied rapidly. 

A DISAGREEABLE INTRUDER 

The officers of the Texan army had been accustomed 
to send mounted men into the abandoned country, 



io6 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



driving out the cattle for the use of the army and thus 
supplying the troops with meat at no other expense 
than that of searching for it, until there were no longer 
large herds to be seen. Now and then, however, as 
in our case, a ranchman would suddenly find three 

or four, or pos- 
sibly a dozen, 
among his own 
herd. 

Father was not 
much pleased at 
this addition to 
his stock, for those 
black fellows were 
so wild, having 
ranged the coun- 
try as they willed 
during eight or ten 
years, that they 
played the mis- 
chief with the tame cattle, as I had already seen. At 
the slightest cause of alarm, they would set off in mad 
flight, and thus stampede the quietest herd that was 
ever rounded up. 

"To-morrow we will shoot that bull," father said, 
"if it can be done without making too much trouble 
among our own cattle. Then perhaps the cows will 




ODD HUNTING 107 

quiet down a bit, and find it more agreeable to behave 
themselves than to run races across the prairie without 
cause." 

Half an hour before dayhght next morning father 
and I, with plenty of ammunition, set off alone to do 
our best at cutting the wild bull out from the herd, 
and ending his career with a rifle ball. 

We left our camp, without waiting for breakfast, 
believing in our ignorance that the hunt would not 
be long; but very shortly after it began we under- 
stood that we had more of a task on our hands than had 
been anticipated. 

To get within rifle shot of the herd seemed for a long 
time an impossibility. No sooner would we come in 
sight of the animals than up would go their tails and 
away across the prairie all the cattle would dash as if 
suddenly grown wild. 

ODD HUNTING 

Then it was necessary to creep up on them, stalking 
the huge creatures as carefully as we might have hunted 
deer; but so wild were they that the least incautious 
movement when we were creeping through the grass, 
wriggling along like snakes, would provoke a snort of 
terror, and away the whole herd would go again. 

More than once I urged father to turn back, saying 
we might drive our own cattle entirely across the re- 



io8 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 




public of Texas, and finally loge them, if we continued 
our efforts. I pointed out to him that already we were 
at least five or six miles from home and had not had 
our breakfast ; but he replied grimly that if we would 
save our own stock, it was necessary to put an ^nd 
to the career of that black bull, who seemed pos- 
sessed by the spirit of mischief, or the tame cattle 
might grow so wild it would be impossible to herd 
them. 

We made our way slowly at times, and again we ran 
swiftly if there was no danger of being seen by the 
beasts, for not less than fifteen miles, when we came to 



1 



A SUPPLY OF FRESH MEAT 109 

a pecan grove in which we hid ourselves, with the idea 
of resting from the exertion of the chase. 

While we sat there concealed by the foliage, the 
very animal we were so eager to kill led the herd directly 
toward us. He kept on feeding leisurely twenty or 
thirty paces in advance of the others, and sniffing the 
air with each mouthful. 

Fortunately for us the wind was blowing directly 
from him toward the pecan motte, and therefore he 
failed to scent any danger. 

On he came, slowly at first, as handsome a beast as 
I ever saw. When he had ventured thus unsuspiciously 
within perhaps half a rifle shot, father whispered to 
me that I should take careful aim, either at the bull's 
neck or just behind the fore shoulder, and when he 
gave the signal, I was to fire. 

It seemed to me that the two shots rang out at the 
same instant, for they sounded like one, and the black 
bull pitched forward on his knees as if struck by 
lightning. A second later he had rolled over dead, 
and the work was finished, save the walk of fifteen miles 
before it would be possible to satisfy our hunger. 

A SUPPLY OF FRESH MEAT 

We covered the carcass with the branches of the pecan 
trees as well as possible, in order to keep the wolves 
and the turkey buzzards away, for even though we 



no 



PHIL'IP OF TEXAS 



had been here but a short time, T had learned that any- 
thing eatable left exposed on the i:)rairie, particularly 
fresh meat, would soon be devoured by the noisy coyotes 




or those unwholesome-looking birds. Then we set 
out on our return to the home camp, leaving the cattle 
to recover from the fright caused by the report of our 
rifles as best they might. 



'JERKING" BEEF in 

When we arrived, at about three o'clock in the after- 
noon, father set one of the negroes to harnessing two 
mules to the small wagon, and announced that I w^as 
to go back with a couple of the men to bring in our 
game, for w^e could not well afford to lose so much fresh 
meat. 

The day had been a long one before I found oppor- 
tunity to crawl into my bed, for it was near midnight 
when we got back with the carcass of the bull. 

When I opened my eyes next morning, I remembered 
the saw pit, beheving I must spend another day at the 
slow task of making boards and joists from green wood, 
but father was at work cutting the carcass of the bull 
into thin strips, while John and Zeba were building 
a little scaffold on the prairie a short distance from 
mother's shelter. 

"jerking" beef 

This was the first process towards ''jerking" beef, or, 
in other words, drying it in the sun, a method of pre- 
serving meat which I fancy has come down to us from 
the Indians. Before the morning was spent I dis- 
covered that there are more disagreeable tasks than 
that of pushing a crosscut saw up and then pulling it 
down. 

Before all the meat had been cut into thin ribbons 
and hung on the scaffolding, we were covered with blood, 

PHILIP OF TEXAS — 8 



112 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



and on the topmost branches of the pecans sat a dozen 
or more of those miserable turkey buzzards, awaiting 
an op])ortunity to come down and eat what was left of 
the carcass. It was necessary to keep as close a watch 
over those birds as we did over the wolves, else all our 

labor would have 
been speedily de- 
voured. When 
there was an op- 
portunity for a 
much-needed bath, 
father allowed no 
more than two of 
us to go into the 
stream at a time, 
obliging the others 
to remain w^here 
they might stand 
guard over the 
meat. 

When night came, the ribbons of flesh were not wholly 
cured and we found it necessary to gather them up 
and store them in one of the wagons lest the dew spoil 
the flesh ; in the morning we hung all the thin strips 
out again, standing over them jealously. 

It seemed to me just then as if all our days and nights 
in Texas were to be spent standing guard over some- 




SEARCHING FOR THE CATTLE AGAIN 113 

thing. During the night we were forced to watch lest 
the wolves devour our sheep, and during the day we 
had to keep a careful eye over the turkey buzzards who 
seemed on the verge of starvation all the time. In 
addition to this labor, it was necessary to perform the 
regular work on the ranch, and thus it may be seen 
that we did not have much time for idling. 

SEARCHING FOR THE CATTLE AGAIN 

The next day father sent out two of the negroes to 
search for our cattle, believing it would be useless for us 
to make any attempt at herding them until after they 
had had ample time to quiet down from the alarm 
caused by the chase and the killing of the bull. 

The black men were absent from the camp tw^enty 
hours before coming back with all the herd, and to have 
heard these negroes complain, one might have thought 
that they had walked a full hundred miles. According 
to their story they traveled a long, long distance before 
coming upon the herd, and then they found it ex- 
tremely difficult to drive the beasts in toward the 
Trinity River, because the two wild cows made every 
effort to stampede the herd whenever the negroes 
came in sight. 

Perhaps I do not need to set down in detail all that 
we did during this first season on the Trinity, but I 
will tell what we accomplished. 



114 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



OUR NEW HOME 

First, and next to the raising of sheep, the most im- 
portant matter to me was the building of the house. 
This we did, working at odd times when not engaged 

in planting, and seeing to 

it that never an hour 

Am i^^^^^^^^fc was wasted, either by 




ourselves or by the negroes. When the work was 
finished, truly we had a building of which to be proud, 
for this new home seemed quite as fine as the one we 
had left in Bolivar County. 

It was built throughout of sawed lumber ; the roof 
was made of a double thickness of boards, and the 



PLANTING, AND BUILDING CORRALS 115 

crevices on the sides of the house covered with the first 
strips taken from the trunks of the trees, with the bark 
still remaining ; but this did not, in my eyes, detract 
from the general appearance of the whole. 

Perhaps it was because I had labored so hard and 
so long on this home of ours, that it appeared so beauti- 
ful in my sight. At all events, it was most convenient, 
as even mother admitted. We had one room on the 
front, overlooking the river, and back of that a store- 
room and a kitchen, which, if not exactly fit for a king, 
served our purposes very well. 

In the loft, which of course was directly under the 
roof, we had our beds, mother, father, and I. Just 
behind the building, or, I should say, on the other side 
of the pecan motte, was a small hut built of round logs 
for the two negroes. We had sent back on foot those 
men whom father hired to drive the teams ; therefore 
when our house was finished and the season at an end, 
only John and Zeba remained to aid in the labor of 
the ranch. 

PLANTING, AND BUILDING CORRALS 

We had planted no less than three acres of corn and 
potatoes, all of w^hich promised a bountiful harvest, 
and gave token of yielding two or three times as much 
as we could have hoped for on the richest of the Mis- 
sissippi bottoms. 



ii6 



PHltlP OF TEXAS 



In addition to the dwellings, we had built a large pen 
for the sheep, made of mesquite bushes stuck so firmly 
into the ground that the coyotes would not dare at- 
tempt to force a passage through. 

We also had smaller pens for the sheep with lambs, 

perhaps a dozen or more of 

them; for, as you know, the 

mother sheep 

very often 



: »,uj- l r>- ; 







will not take kindly to her young, and it is necessary 
either to tie her up, or put her in some small inclosurc 
with the little fellow, during two or three days, until 
she becomes acquainted with him and is wilHng to 
admit that he belongs to her. 

During the season the last work done by the negroes 



BAR-0 RANCH 



117 



was the splitting of rails. With these and with the 
wagons, we made a corral for the mules, where they 
could be inclosed at night, or whenever there was 
promise of a norther which might stampede them. 
For those fierce storms came, as it seemed to me, very 
often. 

BAR-O RANCH 

As for the oxen and cows, they were still allowed to 
roam over the prairie. We could not well provide 
them with a corral, because _^ ^f- 

cattle often feed at night, ^^:/'ft^'ll^''i'//'^^0;^- 
and must have plenty of :;^r^V" ''^^^ ' 







room in which to roam ; but we took good care that 
they were branded, father using as his mark a big 
letter O with a line drawn across the middle. 



ii8 PHILIP OF TEXAS 

Because of this brand I decided we would call our 
new home the Bar-0 Ranch, and to-day I venture to say 
it is as well known in the state of Texas as any other, 
even though we may not number our cattle by the 
thousands, as do the more wealthy cattle raisers. 

During all that season we had but two visitors, and 
how they chanced to stray down our way so far off the 
trail I was curious to learn. They were Mexicans, 
each driving a cart of home manufacture, which was 
the oddest contrivance I had ever seen. 

AN ODD CART 

The wheels are about seven feet high, made of 
three pieces of plank perhaps three inches thick, the 
middle one being the widest, and the two outsides 
quite narrow, the whole being rounded into the shape 
of a wheel. 

The axle on which it is hung, for the carts are built 
somewhat after the fashion of a gig, is nothing more 
than a straight stick of timber with the ends rounded 
off to fit into holes cut through the center of the wheels. 

On this axle, fastened to it by wooden pins and strips 
of rawhide, is the body of the cart, formed of timbers 
no less than three or four inches square. The tongue, 
to which the oxen are yoked, is only a straight piece of 
heavy hickory bound to the axle with thongs and pins 
in the most awkward manner possible. 



AN ODD CART 



119 



Take it all in all, it is as heavy, as ill-contrived, 
and as odd a vehicle as one can imagine. Because of 
its exceeding great weight, the Mexicans cannot carry 
very heavy loads, and, because there are no hubs to 
the wheels and because the owners of the carts use 




little or no grease, it is possible at times to hear the 
creaking of the huge wheels a mile or more away. 

If a Mexican cart is an ill-looking contrivance, then 
surely the yoke for the oxen fully matches it, for it is 
nothing more than a piece of timber, the edges rounded 
somewhat so they may not chafe the animals' necks, 



I20 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



laid directly behind the horns, and lashed there firmly 
with thongs of rawhide. It is made fast to the tongue 
of the cart in the same awkward manner. It must 
cause the beasts much discomfort, and certainly the 
strongest oxen are unable to pull half as much of a load 
as when a yoke with a smooth bow is properly adjusted 
around the necks. 

THE VISITORS 

These Mexicans, who were driving two oxen to each 

cart, claimed to 
be going to Fort 
Towson after cer- 
tain goods which 
were to be left 
there for them ; 
but I doubted the 
statements made, 
as did father, for 
they had their un- 
wieldy vehicles 
partly filled with 
packages five or six 
feet long, wrapped 
in what looked like 
tow cloth, and we 
afterward learned 
that these were 




ZEBA'S CURIOSITY 121 

probably muskets being sent to the northern border 
to be sold to the Indians. 

These strangers were decked out in most fanciful 
costumes, with scarf -like blankets of gaudy colors 
thrown over their shoulders, simply by way of orna- 
ment. They could speak only a few words of Enghsh, 
making their wants known mostly by gestures. 

They asked if they might make camp near our house. 
Such a request was not to be refused, for they might 
have done as they pleased. Father would not have 
had the heart to drive them away, for the prairie, even 
though staked out as a homestead, is free to all travelers. 

zeba's curiosity 

That evening Zeba's curiosity, like my own, was 
aroused by the sight of those bundles in the carts, which 
seemed heavy, as could be told when the Mexicans 
unyoked the oxen. He therefore loitered around try- 
ing to find an opportunity of learning what was inside 
the wrappings of tow ; but before he succeeded in get- 
ting his hands on one of the packages, the Mexican 
drove him away with threats that I fancy would have 
been blood-curdling had we understood the Spanish 
language. 

Their behavior toward Zeba, who thus far had done 
no more than stand idly by the side of one of the carts 
looking in, as a negro will when his curiosity is aroused, 



122 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



caused father to suspect that there was something 
wrong with the men, and that their approaching Fort 
Towson by way of the West Fork of the Trinity was 
not an accident, but rather done by design, that they 
might avoid the beaten Hues of travel. 




Therefore during the night that they remained in 
camp near us, both he and I stood guard, for while we 
had not heard very much concerning the troubles with 
Mexicans and Indians which the settlers on the western 
border were having, we knew the people of Mexico 
had no good will toward us who came from the States; 
although why that should have been the case I have 
never succeeded in learning. 



SUSPICIOUS BEHAVIOR 123 

POSSIBLE TREACHERY 

On thinking it over, there appears to be good reason 
why the natives should be the enemies of those who 
have settled in Texas, for this republic was forcibly 
taken from the Mexican government at the cost of 
much bloodshed, and it would be strange indeed if 
they looked upon us in a friendly manner after that. 

Even if they had not had so much territory taken 
from them, the Mexicans surely had good reason for 
unfriendliness when they remembered the battle of 
San Jacinto, to say nothing of the other engage- 
ments which gave independence to the republic of 
Texas. 

Father has always held that when the Comanche 
Indians overran Texas in 1840, they were urged on 
by the Mexicans, w^ho hoped to get back their territory, 
and perhaps believed that the savages would work 
such ruin to the republic as to make it easily conquered. 

SUSPICIOUS BEHAVIOR 

Under pretense of guarding against the coyotes, 
and preventing the cattle from straying, father and I 
moved here and there in the vicinity of the house dur- 
ing the entire night, and I took note that one or the 
other of those teamsters was on the alert whenever we 
came near them, which fact caused father's suspicions 



124 



PHltiP OF TEXAS 




to increase rather than diminish, and we were thankful 
indeed when, at an early hour next morning, they took 
their departure. 

Five or six weeks later, however, when we had fairly 
good proof that they were carrying muskets ^,nd, 
perhaps, ammunition to the Indians in order that an 
attack might be made on us settlers, father regretted 
that he had not demanded to know what the fellows 
had in their carts. 

When T asked him what he would have done if he 
had discovered that they were carrying weapons, he 
said most emphatically that, knowing the Indians on 



GYP'S FIGHT WITH A COUGAR 125 

the border were in a state of unrest, he would have 
taken it upon himself to stop the fellows at the point 
of the rifle, and would have sent me to Fort Towson, 
even though I might have been forced to go alone, in 
order to learn what disposition should be made of 
them. 

Mother said that it was fortunate for us that we had 
not done any such wild thing, for if the fellows had 
resisted our attempts to search their carts, and resorted 
to weapons, then we might have come out second best, 
for no dependence could be put in John and Zeba in 
event of a downright fight, for they were more cowardly 
than any other slaves I had ever seen. 

GYP^S FIGHT WITH A COUGAR 

Gyp and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves hunting. 
He was not a dog trained for game, but he had so much 
good sound common sense that immediately after we 
had treed and killed our first wildcat, he entered into 
the sport as if he had been always accustomed to it. 

Gyp was more like a comrade than like a brute. 
With the game as abundant as it then was on the West 
Fork of the Trinity, you can be assured that he and I, 
after the hardest of the work had been done, and when 
the sheep were not needing care, had some rare sport. 

It was my ambition to kill what is called a Mexican 
lion, or cougar. I knew there were several prowling 



126 



PHIlllP OF TEXAS 



around, having seen their tracks ; once I came in 
full view of one when he was making a dash for a sheep 
and a lamb which had strayed some distance from 
the flock. 







Gyp and I hunted, day in and day out, without suc- 
cess, until one morning by accident we almost stumbled 
over one of the fellows. In a twinkling the cougar 
and the dog were fighting desperately, while I ran 



IN A DANGEROUS POSITION 127 

around and around them, fearing to shoot lest I should 
kill Gyp, but knowing it was necessary to do something 
without delay. 

The two were rolling and leaping about, each with 
his teeth fastened upon the other, as you have seen 
two bulldogs fight, but for the life of me I could not 
get a fair chance to press the muzzle of my rifle against 
the brute's head. 

Finding Gyp was getting the worst of the battle, 
and forgetting the danger, I whipped out the knife 
which always hung at my belt. Holding it between 
my teeth and taking advantage of the first opportunity, 
I seized that villainous cougar by the neck, and held 
him in such a grip that he was half choked and forced 
to loosen his hold upon the dog. This gave Gyp the 
opportunity he wanted to fasten upon the animal's 
throat. 

IN A DANGEROUS POSITION 

Gyp, however, was not sufficiently strong to win the 
battle unaided, and I had all I could do to retain my 
hold upon the beast's neck, not daring for a single in- 
stant to let go with one hand in order to use the knife. 
Consequently there I stood, clutching the back of the 
cougar, while Gyp snarled and tore at his throat with- 
out doing much execution. 

It was just when I said to myself I could not retain 
my hold many seconds longer, and the beast might 

PHILIP OF TEXAS — 9 



128 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



turn upon me, once my grip was slackened, that father 
came in sight. Then, as you can fancy, the battle 
was speedily ended. He picked up my rifle from the 
ground where I had dropped 
it, and holding the muzzle 
against the brute's ear, fired v 
with such effect that on . 
the instant the cougar y{i 
ceased to struggle. \ ^ 




But it was not always necessary that some other 
should interfere when Gyp and I were waging war 
against the beasts that would have done injury to the 
flock. We killed so many coyotes before the season 



HUNTING WILD HOGS 129 

had come to an end that we ceased to think of it as any 
very great feat, and save for the fact that we always 
took the wolf's hide, made no more of slaying one than 
we did of knocking over a jack rabbit. 

HUNTING WILD HOGS 

Having killed a cougar and scores upon scores of 
wolves, it was my desire to come across a drove of 
peccaries, as the wild hogs of Texas and Mexico are 
called. One day, when Zeba told me he had seen a 
drove of fifteen or twenty near the river, I set off with- 
out delay. Gyp at my heels, intending to bring back 
one or more that we might have a store of salt pork 
for the winter. Little did I dream what kind of 
animals I was going against ! 

We set off early in the morning, Gyp and I, and it 
seemed as if I had traveled at least seven miles before 
I came upon any signs of the wild hogs. 

When I knew that a large number were close at hand, 
I began stalking them as I would a herd of deer. If I 
had known a little more about those vicious animals, 
I would have understood that at any show of enmity 
on my part I would bring them down upon me. 

In fact, this was what I really did, although unwit- 
tingly. I supposed that such game, like others, would 
take to their heels at the first report of the rifle, and 
all I might succeed in getting would be at the first shot. 



I30 PHILi? OF TEXAS 

Therefore I stole up to\vard the herd with the greatest 
caution, spending no less than an hour crawUng through 
the mesquite bushes toward where I heard the Httle 
fellows grunting and squealing as they rooted among 
the decaying leaves for food. 

Xo hunter could have asked for a better shot than 
I had. With a single ball I killed one of the peccaries, 
and wounded two others in such a manner that I had 
no doubt but that I could quickly bring them down. I 
began to reload the rifle, ordering G\p to remam at my 
heels so he might not unduly alarm the drove. Hardly 
had I poured in the powder and rammed it home, 
when like a whirlwind all that drove of hogs charged 
through the mesquite bushes, and in the instant I was 
fleeing for my life. 

Xow it may seem odd that a fellow nearly thirteen 
years old should run away from a drove of hogs : but 
let me tell you that these were no ordinar>* animals, 
as my experience taught me. They were about half 
the size of a full-gro^ii hog, with ver}- sharp snouts, 
wicked-looking tusks protruding from either side of the 
mouth, and long, slim legs, which told that they were 
fitted for a race. 

TREED BY PECC-\RIES 

It is not to be supposed I gave particular heed to 
those characteristics while the peccaries were charging 



TREED BY PECCARIES 



131 



upon me ; it was afterward, when I had an opportunity 
of seeing the dead animals at my leisure, that I noted 
their size and shape. 




When they came at full speed toward me, with 
gnashing of teeth and grunts of anger, I said to myself 
that I w^ould sooner be confronted by two cougars 
than by such a drove, and, realizing on the instant 



132 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



that there was httle chance for me to escape by flight, 
I sought refuge in a small pecan tree which stood near 
at hand. 







It was well I moved quickly, for the foremost of the 
drove thrust at me viciously with his tusks, tearing 



GYP'S OBEDIENCE 133 

off the bottom of my moccasin as I climbed up the tree 
and strove to take my rifle with me. 

In an instant the hair on Gyp's back stood straight 
up, and he braced himself as if for a battle. Now de- 
spite the fact that I had had no acquaintance with pec- 
caries, I understood at a single glance that he would 
have little show against their tusks, and therefore I 
shouted for him to go home. 

The last of the hogs were charging down upon 
us when I repeated the order, and it was fortu- 
nate indeed for Gyp that he had learned to obey in- 
stantly any command I gave, although it was plain to 
be seen that he did not do so willingly. 

gyp's obedience 

Despite my sharp words Gyp stood irresolute half 
a minute perhaps, and I thought he was about to spring 
upon the foe. I shouted yet more sternly, and the good 
dog wheeled about in a manner which told that he 
highly disapproved of my forcing him to turn his back 
upon an enemy, and trotted away. 

The peccaries turned to follow him, whereupon I 
broke one of the stoutest branches within my reach and 
flung it among the drove as a challenge for them to 
turn their attention upon me and to give Gyp an 
opportunity to escape. 

It seemed to me then that vou need no more than 



134 



PHILtP OF TEXAS 



a tone of defiance to provoke a row with peccaries, for 
when the branch hit the leader of the drove, he turned, 
with an angry grunt and snort, to face me. Following 




his example, the remainder of the drove saw me plainly 
as I leaned over in full view. 

If, before we left Bolivar County, any one had told 
me I would flee for my life before a drove of hogs, and 
then allow m\'self to be held prisoner by them, I would 
have laughed heartily, and yet such was the case now. 



MY CARELESSNESS 135 

The vicious little animals crowded against the trunk 
of the tree, leaping up as if hoping to get a hold upon 
me, and tearing off huge pieces of the bark in their 
efforts. 

At first I was not inclined to beheve the situation 
very serious, and said to myself that it was an oppor- 
tunity to lay in as much fresh pork as we could use 
during the winter season. I therefore loaded my rifle 
leisurely and prepared to slaughter the entire drove. 

MY CARELESSNESS 

I fired two shots, bringing down a hog with each 
bullet. Then, through clumsiness or the difficulty of 
holding myself securely upon the small Kmb of the tree, 
the powder horn slipped from my fingers, and in an 
instant they had ground it to fragments. 

It was useless to blame myself for such a blunder, 
and for the moment it did not seem to be very seri- 
ous, since I expected that my enemies would soon go 
away after learning that it was impossible to get 
at me. 

I had killed three outright, and wounded two so 
severely that they were lying on the ground ; but of 
these the remainder of the drove appeared to take no 
notice whatsoever. Their only object was to get hold 
of me, and before ten minutes had passed I began to 
understand that I was not only regularly treed, but 



136 



PHlLiP OF TEXAS 




likely to remain a prisoner until they were forced to 
leave me in order to seek food. 

They leaped, and grunted, and snarled, at the foot 
of the tree until, as time wore on, I became absolutely 
afraid that, growing exhausted, T might fall arnong 
them and be torn to pieces. 

After a time I lost all desire to look at that ring of 
sharp tusks protruding from the red mouths which 
rose and swayed before me like some unearthly thing 
made up of many parts, and was actually grown so 
cowardly that I closed my eyes to shut out the 
sight, 



VICIOUS LITTLE ANIMALS 



137 



VICIOUS LITTLE ANIMALS 



Hour after hour passed, 3^et those vicious little brutes 
at the foot of the tree seemed as excited as when they 
first saw me, and I made up my mind that I was in for 
many hours of this odd imprisonment, because it was 




not reasonable to 
suppose the hogs would 
soon grow so hungry 
as to leave me free. 

But for the fact that 
Gyp was a dog who 
obeyed my every com- 
mand, and had the good sense to understand that 
something serious had happened, I might have come 
to the end of my days there among the mesquite 
bushes, murdered by the peccaries I had counted on 
for pork. 

Fortunately father was about two miles down the 



138 PHILIP OF TEXAS 

river when he saw Gyp coming toward him apparently 
in great fright. At once he understood the situation 
to be extremely grave, else the dog would never have 
returned home without me. Seizing his rifle, for we 
on the banks of the Trinity took good care to go 
well armed even while working on the ranch, father 
ordered Gyp to lead the way to where he had 
left me. 

Half an hour before sunset he came so near that it 
was possible to hear the angry grunting of the peccaries, 
and understood in a twinkling what had happened. 

FATHER COMES TO THE RESCUE 

His first care was to lift Gyp into a pecan twenty or 
thirty yards away from where I was roosting, and 
there the dog struggled to hold himself in the crotch of 
a limb while father clambered up beside him. 

All this while the hogs which were holding me prisoner 
gave no heed to the noise made by father and G>t>, but 
continued their efforts to reach me by leaping up agaifist 
the trunk of the tree until father opened fire, shouting 
to me as he sent a bullet among them : — 

"Are you safe, lad? Have you been hurt?" 

''I am all right; but I have dropped my powder 
horn." 

Then father began firing as rapidly as the rifle could 
be reloaded. There were seventeen in the drove I 



FATHER COMES TO THE RESCUE 139 

came upon ; three I had killed and two I had wounded, 
leaving twelve very much alive and very active. 

Father killed nine before the survivors decided that 
the time had come for them to beat a retreat, and when 
the last of the three trotted off, grunting and gnashing 
his teeth, I literally dropped from my perch in the 
pecan, as limp as though I had been ill for some 
time. 

So far as getting a supply of pork was concerned, 
to say nothing of the saving of my life, it was well 
father took a hand in the fight, for I, who knew nothing 
of the peculiarity of these wild hogs, would have allowed 
the meat to spoil. 

There is a gland on the back, filled with a certain 
disagreeable substance which will make its way through 
all the meat of the wild hog unless it is removed within 
a short time after the killing. Father's first act, even 
before waiting to congratulate me upon my escape, 
or to ask how I had happened to fall into such a pre- 
dicament, was to remove these glands, and not until 
this work had been performed did he give any atten- 
tion to me. 

We dressed the carcasses and hung up the meat on 
the branches of the trees to save it from being devoured 
by the wolves; after which, each of us carrying a peccary 
on his back, we set out for the long tramp home, I 
promising myself sorrowfully that never again would 



140 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



I go out hog hunting without taking due precautions 
against being worsted. 

I shall spend no more time telling of the hunting 




r^:?-in:- ,i,mi. 



which Gyp and I did, even though I am strongly 
tempted to do so ; for we often had rare sport, both 
on the prairie and in the woods, in search of all kinds 
of game. 



THE INCREASE IN MY FLOCK 141 

And there was game in great abundance, if we cared 
to go sufficiently far from home. One year after our 
arrival, however, there came to the banks of the 
Trinity four other families who staked out land and 
thus somewhat interfered with the freedom of our sport. 
It seemed to rne, then, that the country was becoming 
too thickly settled, for I had to walk no more than 
five miles in order to reach the house of a man who 
had been our neighbor in Bolivar County. 

THE INCREASE IN MY FLOCK 

In the spring of 1844, one year after our coming into 
the republic, father decided to give me all his sheep as 
payment for the work I had performed on the ranch. 
By this time our flock of seventy- two had increased 
to a hundred and fourteen, and we had good reason to 
hope that it would be doubled in numbers before an- 
other season had passed. 

I then turned all my attention to herding sheep, 
driving them far. out over the prairie where the grass 
was richest. There, day after day. Gyp and I remained, 
with no other covering than the sky above us, save 
when we spent our idle time putting up a temporary 
shelter here or there where we might be shielded from 
the too strong rays of the sun, or from the blasts of the 
norther. All the while my flock throve famously. 

It seemed to me fortunate, so far as my own enter- 



142 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



prise was concerned, that the new settlers on the banks 
of the Trinity had not brought with them any sheep, 
for they did not expect to raise such animals, having 
heard that the western part of the state was better 
adapted for the purpose. 

Therefore I had no fear that the scab would come 




>-^ T^ 



among my flock, because we were not in that section 
where strange sheep were likely to be driven from one 
point to another, and just so that I kept away from 
where the cattle were grazing, I had the entire northern 
portion of Texas for my own range, with no person to 
interfere. 



UNREST OF THE INDIANS 143 

UNREST OF THE INDIANS 

We had heard rumors of an uprising among the In- 
dians when we came to Fort Towson, on our way from 
Bohvar County. Again, when the new settlers arrived, 
they told us that the Comanches were in a state of 
unrest. All this promised evil for us who were living 
so far from a to^Mi or fortification. 

We had still further reason to believe that some 
trouble might be expected, w^hen those two Mexicans 
stopped at our ranch with cartloads of what were un- 
questionably rifles. Yet we gave little heed to the 
news. It seemed to us that we were so far in the wilder- 
ness, beyond reach of either redskins or whites, that we 
would not be molested, whatever might take place, and 
all our efforts were bent toward improving the ranch 
and increasing our herds and flocks. 

So far as I was concerned, I thought only of the sheep. 
I could not understand why the savages should come 
where we were, because we had nothing to tempt them 
save our live stock. 

We prospered exceedingly as time wore on, and lived 
contentedly, hearing little or nothing from the outer 
world. It was as if we were in a country by ourselves, 
for during the two years we had been on the Trinity 
we had had no visitors, except the two Mexicans and 
those settlers of whom I have spoken. 

PHILIP OF TEXAS — lO 



144 PHILIP OF TEXAS 



TEXAS JOINS THE UNION 



Before coming into Texas to live we had heard it 
said that the citizens of the repubUc were making 
efforts to be annexed to the United States ; but father 
had given Httle heed to such talk, believing that the 
people of the States would hesitate lest difficulties with 
Mexico be brought about. 

We knew nothing of what was going on outside 
our ranch, and were not counting on hearing im- 
portant news. In the spring of 1845, while I was 
rejoicing over the wondrous increase in my flock, 
and father was priding himself upon the fact that 
his land was growing each day more and more valu- 
able, two mounted men drove up just at night- 
fall and asked for food and shelter. As we had 
not had any visitors for nearly two years, you 
cannot imagine how eager we were to grant their 
request, and how earnestly we strove to make them 
welcome. 

In so doing we were well repaid, for then we learned 
that the republic of Texas had ceased to exist. The 
visitors told us we were living in one of the states of 
the Union, for the act of annexation had been signed 
by President John Tyler on the first day of March in 
the year 1845, ^^^ ^ convention had been held later at 
Austin to ratify the resolution. 



TEXAS JOINS THE UNION 



145 



I had brought 
with me from BoH- 
var County a small 
American flag, but 
had not hoisted it 
because of being a 
citizen of the re- 
public whose ensign 
contained but a 
single star. 

Within five min- 
utes after learn- 
ing that Texas w^as 
really a part of the 
Union, I brought 
out the Stars and 
Stripes and fastened 
it to the topmost 
branches of the 
largest pecan tree 
inthemotte. Then 
I saluted it with 
as many charges of 
powder as I could 
afford to spend, for 
you must know that on the Trinity at that time powder 
and ball were not only scarce but expensive. 




146 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



My store of ammunition 
was nearly exhausted by such 
a celebration ; but father 
promised that very soon we 
would drive some of the cattle 
and a few of the sheep to 
Dallas, and there sell them 
to get sufficient money to buy 
the supplies which we were 
needing. 

These visitors of ours had 
come to spy out the land 
with an idea of making a set- 
tlement near our ranch, and 
while it was pleasant to look 
forward to having near neigh- 
bors, I was not pleased with 
the idea of being forced to 
take my flocks farther afield 
in order to find fresh pastur- 
age, as must happen in case 
many people took up land 
in our vicinity. 

For mother's sake, how- 
ever, I was pleased, because 
she was filled with delight at the idea of having some 
one near with whom she could visit. 




WAR WITH MEXICO 



147 



WAR WITH MEXICO 



With the coming of strangers, and the building of 
new homes near us, we began to hear more of what 
was being done in the outer world, and when father 
and Zeba went down to Dallas to sell a few cattle and 







sheep, they brought back the surprising news that the 
United States was at war with Mexico. 

We were told that the younger men of Texas were 
volunteering as soldiers, and that much blood might 
be shed. 

By this time I was fifteen years old, and it seemed 
to me that it was my duty to leave home, and to 



148 



PHILIP OF TEXAS 



abandon my plans of getting rich through sheep raising, 
in order to do what I could in defense of the state of 







which I claimed to 
be a citizen. 

Father soon gave 
me to understand, however, 
that I w^as not yet old 
enough to take up arms. ^ He insisted that duty called 
me to remain where I was, and that we were doing 
our duty by the state so long as we remained on 
the ranch raising live stock, for if war was continued 
any length of time, cattle and sheep would be required 
in order to supply the army with food. 

I therefore gave up all thoughts of enhsting. Per- 
haps I was the more willing to do this because of the 



SELLING WOOL 



149 




sorrow that I should feel if forced to leave my flock, 
which now numbered nearly five hundred. But when- 
ever John or Zeba was at liberty to herd my flock, I 
frequently walked many miles in order to learn what 
was going on in the war. 



SELLING WOOL 

I was the one who brought to our ranch the news 
that the Mexicans had bombarded Fort Brown, May 
4, 1846, when Major Brown was killed; also word 
from Dallas of the battle of Palo Alto. Then we heard 
from Monterey, and but for the fact that I had three 
years' shearing of wool to sell, I believe T might have 
enlisted despite all father could have said. 



ISO 



PHILiP OF TEXAS 



It was necessary, however, that I sell this wool at 
a time when the prices were high, and during the two 
months which followed the battle of Monterey I spent 
all my time freighting the fleeces from the ranch to 




Dallas, using one of the big wagons with eight mules, 
and taking Zeba with me as assistant. 

When I had in my pocket the money which had been 
paid for the wool, it seemed as if I might really call 
myself a ranchman. I was so proud of my success 
that I almost lost sight of the fact that other young 
fellows, most likely some of them no older than T, were 



PEACE ON THE TRINITY 151 

putting on the uniforms of enlisted men, and taking 
their places in the ranks to defend the state in which 
were their homes. 

Once we heard that the Comanches were on the war- 
path, and there were times when it seemed certain we 
might be attacked at any moment. Then father put 
Bar-0 Ranch in a state of defense. He brought from 
Dallas a good supply of weapons, and we fitted to the 
windows of our house heavy shutters in which were 
loopholes. 

PEACE ON THE TRINITY 

But the Lord was good to us settlers on the Trinity ; 
for He permitted no blood-craving Indian to come our 
way. It seemed at times almost as if it was a crime 
for us to prosper so wondrously well, while in other parts 
of the state the settlers were struggling against the sav- 
ages, or standing in battle array before the Mexicans. 
Indeed, I was very nearly ashamed because no harm 
came to us on the Trinity, because our worldly goods 
were increasing day by day, and because Bar-0 
Ranch was rapidly becoming one of the best in the 
state. 

But for the fact that many others have told the story 
of how Texas won her independence, how she flourished 
or decayed as a free republic during ten years, and how 
she was finally annexed to the United States, I would 
be glad to tell more of these things to you. They 



152 PHILIP OF TEXAS 

could not fail to be entertaining as well as instructive, 
for they show how a people with a true purpose before 
them overcame the many obstacles which confronted 
them and finally made Texas what she is to-day, one 
of the brightest stars in the blue field of Old Glory. 

MY DREAM FULFILLED 

I may not have done all I might toward the settle- 
ment of this grand state, but the dream which was 
mine in Bolivar County has at last been fulfilled. 
The flock which numbered twelve when I left the old 
home has increased to more than five thousand, and 
my sale of wool each year amounts to as much as that 
of any other ranchman within two hundred miles of 
us. Furthermore, in addition to my sheep, I claim 
a full interest with father in Bar-0 Ranch, which is in 
itself no mean property, and am duly thankful for 
all the good things of this life which have come 
to me. 

Yet there is in my heart at this moment, and ever 
will be, a keen regret, that I entirely forgot one ad- 
monition from the Bible which has in these past years 
stood out so boldly in my mind. How much better is 
it to get wisdom than gold ! And to get understanding 
is rather to be chosen than silver. 

It is true there were no opportunities for me when 
we first settled on the banks of the Trinity, but if I had 



MY DREAM FULFILLED 153 

struggled half as hard to get wisdom as I have struggled 
to hold my flocks prosperous, then I could now look 
back with real pride upon what I have accomplished. 
If I had done this, there would now be no happier 
person in this great state than Philip of Texas. 



BOOKS CONSULTED IN WRITING 
PHILIP OF TEXAS 

Baker, D. W. C. : A Texas Scrap Book. A. S. Barnes & Co. 
Bolton &: Barker : Makers of Texas. American Book Co. 
Bond, Octavia Zollicoffer : Old Tales Retold. Smith & 

Lamar. 
Braman, D. E. E. : Information about Texas. J. B. Lippincott 

& Co. 
Brown, John Henry: History of Texas. Daniell, St. Louis. 
Dewees, W. B. : Letter from an Early Settler of Texas. Com- 
piled by Cara Cardelle. Hull, 1854. 
Foot, Henry Stuart : Texas and the Texans. Thomas Cow- 

perthwait & Co. 
Garrison, George P. : Texas. Houghton, Mifflin and Company. 
Lubbock, Francis Richard : Six Decades in Texas. Gammel 

Book Co. 
Maillard, N. Doran : The History of the Republic of Texas. 

Smith, Elder &: Co. 
Santleben, August : A Texas Pioneer. Neale Publishing Co. 
Smith, Ashbel : Reminiscences of the Texas Republic. His 

torical Society of Galveston. 
Yoakum, Henderson : History of Texas. Redfield, New York. 



155 



JAMES OTIS'S 
COLONIAL SERIES 



Calvert of Maryland Richard of Jamestown ■ 

Mary of Plymouth Ruth of Boston 

Peter of New Amsterdam Stephen of Philadelphia 

Price, each, 35 cents. For grades 3-5 



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